Grimm Games
by Shadlith
Summary: Ruby Rose was never going to be a normal kid. When she found out her Semblance was called "The Gamer" however, normality went straight out the window. Well, at least Signal Academy won't be boring with this to play with. And hey! If she's lucky, maybe she'll make it into Beacon in a few years!
1. Chapter 1: The Red Gamer

_AN: Written entirely because every work of fiction needs a The Gamer crossover with the protagonist being The Gamer. And for no other reason. If you want a good one with Juane being The Gamer, go check out "The Games We Play". It's pretty awesome. Anyways, this was also written because inspiration dried up for my main fic, Beyond the Veil, and then I heard about Monty Oum, and how for a tribute, we should write something creative, so... uh... this happened. ^.^"_

_Warning: While this draws on elements from The Gamer, in order to more smoothly fit in the RWBY setting and an actual worked out mechanical system, a number of details have been changed. Second warning: We simply don't know much about RWBY Canon. So while I'm going to stick to canon in terms of what exists, by the time we get to Beacon, things are going to be rather different, and likely severely AU. Also, an annoying amount of OCs, but in my defense, we know nothing about Signal, and she did mention she had friends there. Ugh. OCs. Anyone have any suggestions, feel free to review with them, if only so I don't have to worry about annoying readers quite as much. Third warning: This is from Ruby's POV. She's childish, hyper, and has a rather eclectic vocabulary (__**Oobleck:**__ I assure you, as a Huntsman, I have had my share of tussles. __**Ruby:**__ Like the mushroom? __**Blake:**__ Those are truffles. __**Ruby:**__ Like the sprout? __**Yang:**__ Those are brussels. That is, she knows that brussels are a sprout, but not that a tussle is a fight, which, being the battle-fanatic that she is, you'd think she would.__) This will be rather evident in the writing style. Furthermore, Ruby isn't exactly the most responsible of people. While other people would be going "Oh, crap, what does this mean?" She's going, "Ooh! Shiny!" While she does recognize that optimization is important, and isn't going to distribute stat points out of boredom, I can't picture her sitting down and writing up a full graph of her expected growth, optimal build for max damage per second, etc. Also, she's not the most reliable of narrators either._

_Disclaimed, btw. Which, I'd like to note, apparently isn't actually necessary? So I'm just gonna... not do that anymore. We all know this is disclaimed. Just... pretend I wrote it every chapter._

_Summary: Ruby Rose was never going to be a normal kid. When she found out her Semblance was called "The Gamer" however, normality went straight out the window. Well, at least Signal Academy won't be boring with this to play with. And hey! If she's lucky, maybe she'll make it into Beacon in a few years!_

Chapter 1

I rub my eyes as I see Yang get out of bed. When the words and bar floating above her head fail to go away, I rub them again. And then a third time, just to make sure.

Yang Xiao Long. Blood Knight. Level 5. Long red bar. Okay. I glance up at the small status window in the upper right hand corner of my vision. Ruby Rose. Level 1. Health: 44/44 written in white over a long red bar. Aura: N/A written in white over a long blue bar. Stamina: 48/48 in white over a green bar. Darn it! Why am I only level one? Is it because I haven't started training at Signal yet? That's so unfair!

Oh wait, this is new. A small blue box pops into existence in front of me.

Quest Created!

Attend your first day of classes at Signal!

Rewards: 100 XP, Tutorial Skills Granted

Failure Penalty: Decreased Closeness with teachers.

Duration: One School Day.

Accept?: Y/N

"So shall we get breakfast, sis?" Yang asks enthusiastically. I nod absently, concentrating on the box. It looks kind of like the status screens you see in video games. But that was rather silly in real life... unless it was my semblance. Semblances were weird like that. But this would be even weirder than you'd expect, and besides, I hadn't even unlocked my aura yet! People didn't usually get a Semblance until a year or so after unlocking their aura, after all. And besides, what kind of semblance is seeing a video game screen anyways? I am perfectly capable of telling how injured I am, thank you very much, semblance!

Oh, but there was a red bar under Yang's name! Maybe it lets me tell how injured my friends or the bad guys are? That might be useful when dealing with Grimms as a huntress (Which I'm _totally _going to be), since they don't ever really look injured. Hm. I wonder if it does anything else? Maybe I can open up a Status screen and oh, there it is!

Name: Ruby Rose

Semblance: The Gamer

Level: 1

Health: 44/44

Aura: N/A (Locked)

Stamina: 48/48

Str: 5

Agi: 7

Vit: 4

Int: 5

Wis: 2

Luk: 7

Points: 5

Money: 0 Lien

Ooh, I wonder what else there is? A quick runthrough of words later, I apparently have an Inventory (which is currently empty except for my awesome combat skirt, my blouse, and my badass cloak) and a skill section (Which has something called Gamers Body and Gamers Mind, but they're kinda weird, and seem to just say "you're a video game character" which I already knew, thanks).

I break off from my musings to grab a glass of milk and some cookies for breakfast. "So are you excited for your first day?" Yang asks, grinning at me as we find a seat. I put aside the status screen for now. I can figure things out later. Oh! Maybe I can ask her for help with it! Now to find a way to lead into it. Oh, but I should answer her question first.

I nod enthusiastically. "Uh huh! I heard we get to spend our whole first year trying to find a good weapon to use as our base! It sounds awesome!"

"It is." Yang agrees, "But don't get too excited, sis. You also have to do stuff like math and history class, as well as tactics, science, and other 'life skills'. Of course, the lessons on Dust usage, Aura manipulation, and fighting classes more than make up for that, and they're a lot longer."

"That's good!" I reply brightly. "Oh, hey, Yang. You're in your second year, right? With only a couple years to go before you graduate?"

"Uh huh." She nods, looking somewhat confused.

"So hey, do you know if someone can unlock a semblance before they unlock their Aura?" I ask cautiously.

"You unlocked your Semblance?" Yang gives me a wide eyed look. "That's awesome! What is it?"

"I didn't say that!" I protest.

"Then why were you asking?" Yang taunts me. I pout at her, but answer the question.

"Okay, I totally found my semblance. But it's silly."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Yang asks, her face becoming a bit concerned.

"Everything looks like a videogame!" I wave my hands in frustration. "I can see your name floating above your head, and then there's a level beneath it, and then a title, and then a health bar, and the same thing's going on for everyone! Like that guy!" I point at a random classmate-to-be. "Apparently his name is Karot Tarsik, and he's level 3. Since I'm level 1, and you're level 5, he's probably a second year this year. So it's awesome that I can see who I'm talking to, and don't have to actually talk to- oh, hey! What's Observe?"

A message pops up in front of me.

**Through continuous observation, a skill to observe objects, situations, and persons was generated allowing the user to quickly gather information. The higher the skill, the greater the data obtained.**

"...Wait, what?" Yang gives me a confused look. "What are you talking about, sis?"

"My semblance!" I whine at her lack of attention paying. "It just said that I got a new skill called Observe and ooh! Apparently the guy has 50 Health and 37 Aura."

"Ruby." Yang reaches out, patting me on the shoulder and calming me down. "Explain from the beginning, okay?"

"Right." I nod. "So I can see names and stuff over people's heads. You know, like in a game, when you run into another player. And apparently I can pull up a status screen to look at my own abilities and stuff. Like, right now, I just got a skill called Observe, which lets me look at people and learn a little bit about them."

"And it's accurate?" Yang confirms. I shrug at her.

"I don't know. We should find out! After class though, I just got a quest to go to classes. Which, I'll admit, is a pretty boring quest, but I get exp for it, so it's awesome."

She laughs at me, but after a moment she sends me off to class. The first class of the morning was a bit boring, just history stuff, so I spend the whole time using my shiny new Observe skill. Apparently the teachers are pretty strong! Our one's like, level 27, and she's got this awesome battleaxe that, according to my Observe skill uses the "Two Handed Axe" skill or the "Rifle" skill for ranged attacks. It didn't tell me much else until I managed to level it though, but now that it's level 3, it also tells me that the axe/rifle has a range of 1000 meters with its ranged attack, a reach of 2 meters with its melee attack. It could also shroud itself in an element by using some Dust.

The next class, math wasn't much better, except that I apparently earned a point of Int due to "Diligent studying." So that was kinda cool. Of course, that made me want to know what Int actually did, so I spent the rest of the class trying to figure that out.

Strength: Raw offensive Physical power. This affects melee damage and accuracy, as well as how much you can lift and carry. It has a lesser effect on your maximum HP. This also affects stamina.

Vitality: This is a measurement of your physical fitness. The greater this stat is, the higher your Health maximum. This also has an effect on your movement speed. This also affects Stamina, HP Regeneration, and Stamina Regeneration.

Agility: This is a measurement of your speed and agility. This affects your accuracy, speed, and dodging ability.

Intelligence: This measures your cognitive abilities. It affects a number of crafting and academic skills, as well as Dust and Aura usage. Higher levels increase your total amount of Auric energy. It

Wisdom: This stat determines how effective you are at making good decisions, and your awareness of your surroundings. This ability also affects your Aura regeneration rate and your Stamina regeneration rate.

Luck: How lucky you are.

So apparently I'm not that good at making good decisions, which is totally not true, but in case it is, I'll save my shiny 5 points until I've got Yang to help me pick. Or until I find out more. In the meantime though, is Auric Manipulation, where we unlock our Auras.

Unlocking auras is pretty straight forwards. The teacher drags us up front, uses a small supply of Dust to provide enough power to unlock our Aura, then orders us to sit down. Well, there's also a lecture, but I wasn't really paying attention. But for everyone else, it probably just stops there. For me though? My Semblance starts acting up.

**Your Aura has been unlocked! You can now activate Auric Abilities!**

**Your Aura Pool is now accessible! You have 60MP.**

**Your study of Aura has granted you the the Aura Shield ability! **

**Your study of Aura has granted you the the Strengthen ability!**

**Your study of Aura has granted you the the Speed Boost ability!**

**Your study of Aura has granted you the the Regenerate ability!**

**Your study of Aura has granted you the the Channel Aura ability!**

A bit of poking around while the others were getting unlocked told me what they did. Aura Shield was the basic usage of Aura to protect myself. At the level one I had it at, it reduced wounds by 90%, but all blocked damage hit my Auric Pool instead of my HP. Higher levels would make less of the damage affect my auric pool... I think. It was written really weirdly. Strengthen and Speed boost increased my strength and speed by 10% just by having them, and let me spend 10 auric energy to increase it by another 10% for a minute. Regenerate automatically spent one auric energy to restore one health each minute. And the channel aura ability just let me channel my aura through items at normal efficiency.

Unfortunately, the class ends before we do anything else, so next is weapon-making. Which is awesome!

(I AM A LINE)

I got a couple new skills last class, mainly Weaponcrafting and Armorcrafting, but nothing else really important happened. So now I'm back in my dorm, talking with Yang again. "You should save your points until you figure out your combat style." She decides, "I mean, I stand up front and use Ember Cecelia in close range, so I'd probably have a lot of strength and vitality. If you're planning on running around and hitting things as you move past them like Uncle Qrow does, you'll probably want a lot of Agility and Intelligence. The agility lets you move quickly and dodge incoming attacks, while the intelligence will let you use your skills more often. Auric Energy's treated like mana in video games, right?"

I nod and she continues. "Then intelligence is probably one of the best for that style, especially since you can just use your aura to boost your strength and speed. Combine that with a high natural speed and you can just run up to them, hit them as hard as you can, then run away to get away from their own attacks. It'll also help you with your weapons ranged component. If agility affects your accuracy with ranged weapons, and their damage depends on the weapon itself, then having a high agility means that you'll be able to shoot things pretty well!" Her voice returns to it's normal cheerfulness as her speech ends, losing a lot of the weight that it had until now. "That being said, that's an awesome ability What do you think will happen when you level up? Do you think you'll get more stat points?"

"Oh! We should find out!" I say excitedly, "I heard there's a lot of beowulfs in Signal's forest."

"That's true. They're pretty weak, but that just means they're a good thing to practice on for newbies." Yang replies thoughtfully. "I'll ask the teachers. It should be fine though, especially since someone'll be there to keep you from getting yourself into trouble. In the meantime, you head to the armory and go pick out something to use."

"Awesome!" I leap forwards, grabbing her in a hug. "Thanks, sis!"

"Hey, what are sisters for?" She teases.

I make my way to the armoury, which, by the way, is awesome! There's a ton of weapons, all over the place! They're really simply ones, classics, really. Shortswords, longswords, a couple pistols, and, oh! Scythe! Sweet! I quickly grab it, swinging it around to try to get a feel for it. As I do, another message pops up.

**Wielding a two handed axe has unlocked the Two Handed Axe Skill.**

**You have unlocked Axe Mastery skill.**

... Apparently it counts as an axe. Which is, you know, kinda cool, but also not really what I expected. I decide to take a closer look at the two skills, you know, try to figure out what they do.

**Two Handed Axe: Level 1. 0% XP.**

**Allows the User to Handle Axes.**

**This skill determines your hit rate with Two Handed Axes.**

**0% Base Crit Chance.**

**Axe Mastery: Level 1. 0% XP.**

**This skill makes the user more effective with axes. Axes are slow, but do significantly more damage than any other melee weapon type.**

**+10% Damage.**

I give off a gleeful yelp, then quickly slap a hand over my mouth. Good, no one heard that. Now I need a gun! Ooh! Sniper Rifle! I want it! I grab one, then pout- I mean, frown menacingly as the weight unbalances me. Well that's no fun. I'll have to grab something smaller. Or... I could use the bipod! Oh, but then I'd have to lie down... hm... Oh, I bet I could attach it to my scythe! And I could have it fold out and stuff to switch between a higher rate of fire and accuracy! And I could use the scythe's blade as the bipod, and since it'd stick into the ground, I could even use it to absorb recoil! If I make it strong enough, I bet I could even kick up the recoil to let me fly around by riding it! Oh, hey, new skills.

**Wielding a sniper rifle unlocked the Sniper Rifle Skill.**

**You have unlocked the Sniping Mastery skill.**

OOH! That sounds awesome! A quick look-see shows that they act pretty much like the two axe skills I got a little bit ago. Sniper Rifle helps me hit, while Sniping Mastery gives me a 10% boost to damage. I bet if I level my weaponcrafting, I can make an awesome sniper-scythe! I'm going to call her Crescent Rose of Infernal Death! Wait, no, that's a mouthful. And the initials sound silly. CRID. It's a letter away from being crud, and Yang would never let me live that down. Hm. How about Crescent Death? Nah, that sounds all overdramatic. Eh, I'll pick a name when I actually make her.

In the meantime, I need to grab some ammo. Let's see... red dust! I like red. My cloak is red, it's an awesome color. It's also the standard for most bullets, so let's grab a couple- and new skill!

**Your practice at handling dust has unlocked Dust Efficiency.**

Wonder what that does?

**Dust Efficiency. Level 1. 0% XP.**

**Your skill with the usage of dust makes you more efficient at using it, requiring less of it to catalyze your Aura abilities.**

**Dust Abilities require 100% of the normal amount of Dust.**

Huh. I wonder what a Dust ability is? I'll ask Yang later. For now though, we're off to kill some beowulfs! I quickly make my way to the gate, to find Uncle Qrow already there, with his name, a Level ? and a full health bar. "Huh? Uncle Qrow? What are you doing here? And where's Yang?" I ask, peering up at him.

"Your sister told me about your semblance." He says calmly. "I decided it would be best for me to supervise instead. We don't want any unfortunate incidents happening if you get in over your head, do we?" I let out a nervous chuckle, shaking my head.

"No, that once was enough." I say sheepishly, then perk up, waving my scythe at him. "Look! I'm going to use a scythe like you do!"

"I can see that." He says, his voice a little bit cautious. "Have you already had a chance to practice with it?"

"Well... no." I admit sheepishly scuffing my boot against the rocks on the ground. "But in video games everyone can use weapons pretty well even if they've never used them before, so I bet it'll work like that!"

"Let's head to a practice arena and test that out first." He says dryly.

"Aw. Okay." I rest the scythe on my shoulder, then trot off to the arena with him. It's pretty nicely designed, with a lot of practice-bots that they send out for you to practice again, and some non-moving targets if you're a beginner. It's also really big, so you can do all sorts of awesome flips and jumps, and there's shields on the sides to stop any gunfire from hitting the crowds.

Uncle Qrow calls up a couple of the non-moving targets, then waves at them. "Let's have you start a couple swings against the static ones to begin with." He says.

"Static? Are they going to zap me if I mess up?" I ask, slightly worried.

"What? No. Static as in immobile." I stare at him, and he sighs. "They don't move."

"Oh! Gotcha." I chuckle, then ready the scythe. My first few swings are clumsy, missing entirely.

"No." He interrupts, stepping forwards to fix my stance. "Your balance is off, hold yourself like this, and this and-"

He's interrupted by the chimes of a message.

**A skill teacher has helped you to increase your Two Handed Axe skill by 1.**

**A skill teacher has helped you to increase your Axe Mastery skill by 1.**

The sudden rush of information into my brain is really weird. It's like there's a river, but it's carrying knowledge, so it's like a river of knowledge, you know? And suddenly I can feel some of the mistakes in my stance. I shake it off, paying attention to his corrections and working at it. A while later my skill level is 5, and I'm actually hitting a good amount of the time. At this point, he tells me, "From here, it's just repetition, practice, and judgement. Also, are you certain you don't want a lighter, less awkwardly sized weapon?"

"Yes!" I pout, "Why do you keep asking me that? You've asked like, 5 times already!"

"The size and weight are throwing you off." He grimaces. "If you were able to use your aura to increase your strength, this wouldn't be as much of a problem, but..."

"Oh!" I perk up. "I can do that! I got the skill during class!"

"What?" He looks confused. "You shouldn't have had time to do any more than unlock your aura, let alone learn how to strengthen yourself with it."

"Well, the teacher didn't teach us, I just unlocked it, and then I got the skill popup for it, and I was like, whoa this is awesome, but it uses like, 10 Auric Energy per 10% boost, and my strength is already only 5 so it's not really much, and I don't even have that much aura to begin with!"

"Are... you saying that your Semblance gave you the ability to use your aura immediately?" He finally asks. I nod.

"Uh huh! Here, watch!" I mentally flip the switch that activates the Strength Boost skill, taking a breath as my strength shoots up. 30 mana, and my breath is brought up by 1.5 for a minute, hovering at 7, enough to let me wield the scythe smoothly. I slam it down on the dummy, watching in surprise as it flows through the air much more smoothly, then crashes into the broken robot with a bit more force than last time. Not too much more, but still. It's actually kinda noticeable.

"That's... impressive, especially if you have that much fine control so quickly. Most don't bother learning how to use their aura for quick boosts, preferring to rely on the passive ones.." He says thoughtfully. "Hm... What else does your semblance let you do? And do you have any ideas what it might let you do later on?"

I quickly explain it to him, or as much of it as I've been able to figure out, which admittedly isn't too much, but still!

"So it lets you keep track of what condition you're in and how good you are at things." He summarizes. "It also lets you grow at abnormally high rates. However, the ability does not give you any unusual capabilities beyond that?"

"Well, it gave me a couple skills called Gamer's Body and Gamer's Mind, but their descriptions are just, 'Your body acts like you're playing a video game' and 'your mind acts as if you're playing a video game'" I say helpfully.

"That could just be taking into account the effects it has on your body and mind when you spend those stat points you mentioned." He muses. "Very well. Ruby, we will try something. Here." He pulls out a red dust crystal. "While the skill of direct auric elemental manipulation has fallen by the wayside due to the usage of Dust in our equipment, it still remains a viable method of combat, especially when enhanced by a Dust crystal."

"... Huh?" I blink at him in confusion, and he sighs.

"Okay, history lesson. Before man discovered Dust, we still fought the creatures of Grimm. There were two ways we did so, with martial arts, and with direct auric manipulation. Oftentimes, this became one and the same. Martial Arts techniques focused on increasing the strength of your blows to a level where they could even injure the creatures of Grimm. While this required an unlocked aura, it did not expend any auric energy, instead tiring you out on a more physical level. This probably would use your stamina bar. Direct auric manipulation, on the other hand, used the aura to fight our foes. Masters of it could conjure the elements, summon spirits, and... well, anything you can do with dust, you could do with just Aura. However, doing so was difficult, and people capable of doing so were rare. Aura was much more often used for what it is now, strengthening the body and healing it, while martial arts techniques were used on the offense, to fight and kill our foes. The discovery of Dust, however, changed things. Now Aura could be used offensively by the masses in the form of Dust bullets, modified semblances, and other such techniques."

"So..." I stare at him, waiting for him to get to the point.

"I want to see if you can shoot people without a gun." He finally sighs.

"How would that work?"

"You use your aura." He replies patiently. "Now take the crystal, and I'll try and walk you through it."

I take it gingerly.

"Good." He says, his voice dropping into a low, soothing baritone. "Now, first thing we need to do is teach you how to move your aura into the crystal. To be-"

"Done." I say immediately. It uses up an Auric Point, but I shove a little bit of my aura into the crystal.

"... I see. Now, concentrate on the feel of the crystal. It should burn with flame, destruction." He continues. "Gather that feeling. Shape your aura to match it."

I nod, obeying. The crystal begins to glow red, and I notice my Aura Pool begin to drain out.

"Now take the aura inside the crystal, and launch it out of the crystal. At the target." He adds quickly, pointing his own scythe at the practice dummy.

I nod again, shoving my aura out of the crystal in a bolt of flame.

**Your experiments with Red Dust have unlocked the Flame Bolt skill!**

**Your experiments with offensive Aura manipulation have unlocked the Innate Attack skill!**

**You have gained experience at Channel Aura. You are at 12%**

**You have gained experience at Dust Efficiency! You are at 5%.**

The fireball crashes into the dummy, draining away a full 25 mana as it does. The crystal shrinks a bit, and I let out a yelp. "Why'd the crystal shrink?" I ask, worried.

"Some of it was used to catalyze the fireball." Uncle Qrow explains. "It's the same thing that happens in a bullet, and it's why you have to replace the magazines. I'm actually rather impressed. Most people would require years of training just to use that. How much energy did that cost you?"

"Twenty five." I reply promptly.

"That's more than twice as reinforcing your strength or speed by 10% for a minute, correct?" He hums. I nod. "And you mentioned that Intelligence increases your Aura Pool and the power of your attacks. Does it increase the efficiency of the skill?"

"I don't know. Do you think it would?"

"Probably not." He decides. "Hm. This would be easier if we could tell how much your intelligence affects the fireballs, versus how much strength affects a blow. But unfortunately, we can only check your strength for now."

"Huh? How?"

"Attack, then reinforce and attack again. Use your observe skill to check damage dealt each time. The difference in how much damage is dealt to the object will give you a good idea of how much effect each point has. Try it again with a fireball and a slash with your strength at the same level, and we can tell how much impact the stats have on the attacks. We won't be able to tell how much each point of intelligence affects something though." He explains.

After a few moments of thinking that through, I finally speak. "Well, I've got 5 skill points." I offer. "I could spend one on Intelligence?"

"Yes, that wouldn't hurt even if Strength turns out to have a greater effect than I anticipate." He muses. "Very well, let's begin testing."

A few minutes of testing and observing later, we manage to figure out that the melee skill does a lot more than the fireball... until my fireball skill goes up a couple levels and I put a point in Int. At that point, the fireball starts catching up a bit. It's still really behind though, only doing like, 11 damage or so compared to the scythe's 25ish. And of course, at that point, I unlock the Power Attack skill, which lets me almost triple my scythe damage for one attack by spending a few Stamina Points. I also level up the Strength Boost skill a couple times, so that's pretty awesome, because the permanent "passive" boost goes up to 12%, and each AP spent also gives 12%. Which isn't much, but Uncle Qrow got all excited and stuff because that means that it'll end up costing me less aura to get the same amount of boost.

"Very well. Here's my suggestion." Uncle Qrow finally says. "Don't put any points into Strength or Agility. You can use your Aura to compensate for those. Instead, increase your Intelligence and Wisdom. Intelligence will give you more auric energy that you can use to power your aura when it boosts your strength, while wisdom will let your recover that energy more quickly. After that put points into Vitality. It'll keep you alive, and apparently affects your stamina that you use for your Power Attack skill. My suggestion is 2 into Intelligence and Wisdom, and 1 into Vitality or luck each level."

"Wait, Luck?" I blink at him.

"Luck is good." He tells me seriously. "Luck can and often is the difference between life and death. The fact that you can tell exactly how much luck you have is rather amazing." He then mutters something, but shakes his head when I ask him to repeat it.

I nod, then distribute the points how he explained, then pull up my stat sheet to look at the changes.

Name: Ruby Rose

Semblance: The Gamer

Level: 1

Health: 52/52

Aura: 80/80

Stamina: 53/53

Str: 5 (5.6)

Agi: 7 (7.7)

Vit: 5

Int: 8

Wis: 4

Luk: 7

Points: 0

Money: 0 Lien

"My HP's up to 52, my Aura's at 80, and my Stamina's at 53." I say cheerfully.

He frowns. "Your Vitality and Strength are the same, right? I thought your description implied that vitality affects health more than it affects stamina?"

"Well, my Strength has a boost from unlocking my aura." I point out reasonably. "Maybe that's why? Because it's got 5.6 in parentheses."

"So the secondary stats are derived from the adjusted stats, not the base ones?" He muses. "Or is it just that they're both being added to a different base number? Hm. I suppose we can figure out some other time. In the mean time, head back to your room. We'll meet up here again tomorrow to work on your Semblance some more."

"Okay." I say cheerfully, then pause. "But wait, isn't that favoritism or something?"

He shakes his head. "No, when a student unlocks a semblance, it's standard procedure to have a teacher work with them individually until they master it, if only due to the amount of chaos that can be caused by some semblances."

"Oh, that's good." I say, sighing a bit in relief. I have enough trouble meeting people and talking to them without having to deal with a bad rep like being singled out for whatever.

"Now one more thing. You mentioned you got the fireball skill? Do you mind pulling up it's description? I need to cross-check it against the description given in the book."

I nod, quickly pulling up the screen.

**Flame Bolt. Level 1. 4%. Active Skill. Dust Ability. 100 Aura.**

**Creates and launches a small bolt of flame. Using 1 milligram of [Red Dust] reduces cost by 75%. The amount of dust required is modified by your Dust Efficiency. Damage depends on Intelligence. **

Oh, so that's what a Dust ability was.

"Hm. That seems to be an explanation highly specialized towards your usage." He admits. "Although that does seem to imply that with sufficient amounts of mana, you can use it without having to catalyze the effect with Dust, which may be a useful thing to learn."

"What does that book say, anyways?" I ask curiously, staring at it. As I do, I notice that there seems to be a strange golden glow around it as I get closer. "Huh? Why's it glowing?"

"What?" He gives me a confused look. "It's not glowing." I'm about to argue before I remember, wait, video game! Important things glow. I wonder why the book's important though? Observe time!

**Fireball Skill Book.**

**An old red, hardcover book. Teaches the skill Fireball. 250 Lien.**

So it basically just indicates that the book can teach me a skill? Well I guess that'll save me the trouble of going through and actually reading each book.

"You figured something else." He comments. I nod.

"The glow means that it's a skill book." I explain, "Specifically one that teaches Fireball."

"Interesting." He muses. "I wonder..." He reaches into his backpack and pulls out another book, this one with a yellow cover. "Try to identify this one."

"Earthen Grasp." I reply after a quick Observe. "Why do you have these with you, anyway? I thought you said no one used them?"

"I didn't say that." He corrects me, "There's a couple hunters who actually prefer dust-laced clothing and these skills to mundane weapons.

"Oh." I nod agreeably and he chuckles. "Well either way, take this." He hands the book to me, and I grab it. As I do, a new menu appears.

**Skill Book Found: Earthen Grasp**

**Learn Skill?**

**Y/N**

"Oh! It says I found a skill book, and I can learn the skill by hitting Y. Should I?" He nods at me, and I hit the button. And the book explodes. Not the fun kind, with fire, but it explodes really weirdly, turning into a giant pile of golden dust which whirls around then slams into me, and it's really pretty, but really weird because the second it does, I immediately know exactly how to shape my aura to create a giant hand out of the earth and try to grab people with it, you know? And then there's another menu.

**Your study of Aura has unlocked the Earthen Grasp skill.**

"Well. That was interesting." Uncle Qrow says. "What's the details on the new skill?"

I poke the menu a couple times to bring it up.

**Earthen Grasp. Level 1. 0%. Active skill. Dust Ability. 80 aura.**

**Grabs your target with a hand made out of earth. Using 1 milligram of [Brown Dust] reduces the cost by 75%. The amount of dust required is modified by your Dust Efficiency. Grabbing strength depends on Intelligence.**

I read it off for him, and he nods. "Interesting. I don't have any more books that seem like they'd teach skills with me at the moment, so that's it for now. Remember, we meet again tomorrow."

We leave the area, and I split off to return to my dorm.

"Hey sis! Sorry I wasn't able to come, Uncle Qrow sent me back. Did you guys learn anything?" Yang says, glancing up from her book as I enter the room. Her... glowing book. Huh. I wonder why a book on Grimm would count as a skill book? Observe!

**Grimm Anatomy Skill Book.**

**A black textbook, containing pictures of many Grimm. Teaches the Grimm Anatomy skill. 125 Lien.**

**Continual use of Observation has increased your skill level! You are now level 4 in observation! Additional information may be found!**

Oh! I wonder what happens if I use it again? I rescan the book.

**Grimm Anatomy Skill Book.**

**A black textbook, containing pictures of many Grimm. Teaches the Grimm Anatomy skill, which allows you to score critical hits more easily on Grimm. 125 Lien.**

Oh! It tells me what the skill does now! That's pretty awesome! Oh wait, Yang's staring at me. Why's she staring at me? Oh, right! Question! I should answer it.

"Oh, right! Um, we found out that I can make books explode and eat their knowledge, and that I can learn skill really really fast." I say cheerfully.

"So would that make you a bookworm?" Yang asks, smirking. "Becuase, you know, bookworms eat books."

"Yang, that was even worse than your usual ones!" I whine back. She shrugs.

"Eh, they can't all be winners." She comments.

"None of them are winners!" I complain.

"My lack of punning today aside," She says loudly, "What did Uncle Qrow teach you?"

"Oh! He taught me a couple Dust abilities, like throwing a fireball and grabbing someone with a hand made out of dirt. Oh, and he taught me a bit about how to use a scythe!"

"So he really gave you a hand with your learning then?" She says, perking up.

"Uh huh!" I agree cheerfully. She stares at me expectantly for a moment, then gives a put-out sigh.

"Oh, whatever." She grumbles, ignoring my questioning look. "So are you planning on picking up any more dust abilities?"

I nod. "They're fun!" My voice comes out a bit more happy than I expected, but I keep talking. "I had no idea that using my aura like that was so... awesome! It's like, it's like a river of power, and you're just swept away in it, and then everything's just _you_ you know?"

"Yeah, that's kinda how I feel when I'm fighting." She says, grinning at me. "So are you going to stick with dust-imbued clothes, or that polearm you're always talking about making?"

"It's a scythe, thank you very much!" I say with as much dignity as I can muster, "And _yes_ I'm going to use it. I'll might drop the whole sniper idea-"

"What sniper idea?" She tries to interrupt, but I talk over her.

"But dust bullets are probably still a lot easier than fireballs, and they probably won't cost me any energy, so I'll just use _both_ and then level my skills to the point where I don't need _any_ dust to use them, so there!"

"You can do that?" She asks, sitting up.

I nod proudly. "Uh huh! It just, you know, takes a LOT of aura. Using Dust kicks it down by like, 75%, and even then, it's a lot, but I bet if I practice enough, I can make it cost less!"

"Oh, how much?" Her voice is full out curious now, and I deflate.

"Uh, 100 for the fire one, and 80 for the earth one." I admit, "So I can't actually use any of them yet. But I will be able to soon! Oh, wait, no, I lied! I can use the earthen grasp one, it'll just completely use up all of my aura."

"So it's not actually that useful, is it?" Yang points out. "I mean, you might be able to... give a friend a hand with something," I groan at the terrible pun, because seriously, that one wasn't even trying. She ignores me and continues. "But if your aura runs out, you'll be almost defenseless won't you?"

"I can still use a weapon!" I protest.

She nods. "Right, but your aura shield will be down." She explains, "So you won't be able to take blows that you otherwise could. Most weaker blows can be practically ignored once you're skilled at using your aura, because the damage just gets absorbed by it. But once the aura's down, you're a lot easier to hurt."

"Oh, that's right." I nod, "But it says that's because 90% of the damage goes to the Aura Pool instead of my Hit Points. And as I get better, less of that 90% actually hits my Aura Pool."

"That sounds about right." She agrees with a smile and a nod. "I know that when I was first fighting, my aura'd go down really quickly, but later on, the same attacks took less and less out of my aura pool, despite hurting the same amount."

"Oh!" I grin at her. "Do you think if I get it to a high enough level, I'll be able to completely ignore attacks?"

She shakes her head. "Nah, I doubt it. I mean, no game designer would ever allow something like that."

"But it's not actually a game, is it? It's real life." I point out.

"Yeah, that makes it even less likely though. I mean, real life's kinda unfair in the enemy's favor, not in ours." She points out in return. I begin to frown at the reminder, and she quickly continues. "But, hey! That's why we're here. To swing things back in our favor." She gives me a sunny smile.

"Right." I agree firmly.

(I AM A LINE)

AN:

Well. This is a thing that happened.

Stats and how they work (Ruby doesn't necessarily know this): Note that the abilities also affect the effectiveness of skills. Also note that these aren't the equations in the manga. I have no idea what those equations are.

Strength (STR): Increases lifting strength and damage with melee weapons.

Vitality (VIT): Increases Health and stamina. Also affects movement speed.

Agility (DEX): Increases speed, accuracy with ranged weapons, and dodge ability.

Intelligence (INT): Increases MP total and increases power of Aura abilities.

Wisdom (WIS): Aura Regeneration increases by 1% every 10 WIS points.

Luck (LUK): Increases your chance of getting item drops.

Secondary Abilities (Not increased directly): Note that temporary boosts from abilities do not increase these scores, while permanent, passive boosts _do._

Health: (STR+VIT*3)*2.5

Aura: INT * 10

Stamina: (STR+VIT)*5

Ruby has an impressively large list of skills at level one already, so I'm not going to bother listing them. I'll... try to find a way to keep track of what she has and at what level though. In other news! I have constructed a character sheet and the mechanics system for this. It is undoubtedly broken and unbalanced. That's okay, it's not being sold or anything. I'm debating between making a copy of the sheet and putting a link on my profile to a folder filled with a different sheet for each chapter, or just updating the same one when I need to. Or making a second story doc that just contains mechanics info, character sheets, etc. But I'm pretty sure that last one would be breaking the rules, so I'd have to check.

Also, I'm pretty sure I know where I'm going with this. I'm pretty sure I know what the plot is. I'm pretty sure that I know how I'm getting there. I'm also willing to drop those ideas the second something shiner happens. Feel free to review about what direction you think this should go, what stats and skills Ruby should focus on, etc. I might not take your advice, but I promise I'll consider it. You can also suggest skills, but if you do, I expect you to give me a general idea of the math behind it, because I _will_ be throwing these skills into an excel sheet.

Next: There's going to be some similarities to the Gamer. There's going to therefore be some similarities to other fanfics based on The Gamer. This is unavoidable. Hopefully, this fic will properly differentiate itself.

Finally: I feel like the characters are really OOC. . It annoys me. I have trouble writing Yang, and _of course_ I pick a character who pretty much only interacts with her. .


	2. Chapter 2: Exploring

Inspiration hits fast and hard, I guess. XD

Chapter 2

_I hiss angrily as my eyes blink open. I can taste joy on the air. Joy, and happiness, and contentment, and all sorts of things. They taste like... sugar. Only bad. I'm not sure how sugar can ever taste bad, but there you go. I raise my face to sniff the air. Ugh. There's almost no real degree of fear here, not enough of it. Not enough to make a meal. Will I have to feed on this joy? Such a despicable taste. Well, one does what they must, and I'm alone. No others have lived as long as I have. If I kill, hunters will arrive in droves, and I shall have to face them alone, and my shadowy flesh burns in the light of their souls._

_I turn, then catch a glimpse of a bone-white mask in a mirror. The face of a Grimm. I reach up, my black claw-like hands reaching under it. I peel it off, revealing brown eyes and silver hair, in tan human flesh. The hunters will not find me if I look like this. I let the mask fade back to the shadows from which it was born._

_A noise. I glance up. The allyway is unusually full. A human with a staff attacks another. The second has unusually large gray ears, extending from the top of it's head. Should I have ears like that? No, few of the other humans do. My disguise is safe._

_I open my maw, revealing fangs built to tear, crush, kill. I roar. The human with the staff runs. The other thanks me. He calls me a white fang. I nod. He offers me hospitality. I accept._

**You Had a Nightmare. You did not recover HP, SP and AP today.**

**Tutorial:**

**Hello! Welcome to the Grimm Games Tutorial! During your years at Signal, you will be taught the rules of Grimm Games, and will be taught everything you need in order to achieve Level 9! These pop ups will occur from here on whenever you encounter something requiring a Tutorial.**

I wake up with a loud yell, waking Yang as well. "Hey, you okay, sis?" She asks. A few panicked breaths later, I feel myself calming down.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just- just a really weird dream." I say. "Go back to sleep. I'm going to go take a walk."

"Hey, don't forget we have class tomorrow." She warns me. "And combat classes on less than 8 hours of sleep are a real pain. Not fun at all, lemme tell you!"

"It's fine." I say, smiling at her before I realize, oh wait, dark, can't see each other. "I'm just going to get some warm milk."

"Eh. I'll come with you, sis." She says. I shake my head.

"It's fine, Yang, seriously, don't worry. I'm just going to get some milk, check if I got any quests or anything, then go back to sleep. Oh, that reminds me, I need to turn in yesterdays quest and get the reward! Exp, Exp~" I sing it cheerfully to myself. She chuckles, apparently comforted by my cheerfulness.

"Gotcha." She says, returning to sleep.

I open my status screen, then realize I have no idea how I'm supposed to turn in the quests. Quest? No. Jobs? No. Tasks? Oh, hey! It worked. Awesome! And... looks like it's broken into Quests, Jobs, and Story. Whoever made this game is a jerk. They could have just made Quests work. Whatever. Under Quests is the task from yesterday. I tap it, then tap Complete when the option comes up.

**You've gained 100 XP.**

**Completion of this Quest has granted you the Title Signal Academy Student.**

**Completion of this Quest has granted you the skill Observe. You already have this skill. Due to your low level in this skill, your Observe level was able to rise. You have gained 1 level in Observe.**

**Completion of this Quest has granted you the skill Leadership.**

**Completion of this Quest has granted you the skill Perfect Body.**

**Completion of this Quest has granted you the skill Breathing Exercises.**

**Completion of this Quest has granted you the skill Meditation.**

**You've unlocked the Quest, "Forge a Weapon."**

**You've unlocked the Story Scenario, "Torchwick's Dust Holdup."**

Wow. That was actually pretty awesome. I wonder what the skills do? I pull up my skill menu, looking through them. Observe continues to explain that it lets me observe stuff, which isn't new, but makes me want to go Observe things to find out what new information I can see.

**Leadership. Level 1. Passive Skill. Charismatic.  
****Grants the ability to have up to 3 followers at a time. Followers will have all their stats temporarily increased by 0%. Number of followers and passive bonus granted to followers will increase as your level in this skill increases.  
****Perfect Body. Level 1. Passive Skill.  
****Passively increases HP by 0%. You may practice this skill to raise your HP without raising your base stats.**

The other two new skills are like the last one, except for my Stamina and Aura respectively. So... that's a pretty awesome set of skills. In the meantime though, I'm going to continue on my way! To the kitchens, to steal some milk! Er, I mean, requisition! Yeah, that's totally what's going on. I'm requisitioning milk without permission. And then granting it to myself. Or something.

I continue on my way, satisfied with my justification as I check the rest of my menus. Oh wait, I should check out the quests! And the Story! I wonder what that is? Does a dust delivery get slowed down or something? And who's Torchwick? I bet he's a deliveryman that I need to rescue!

Oh, lemme check the other ones first.

**Forge a Weapon  
****Create a weapon for your own personal use!  
****Rewards: 500 XP, Recoil Boost or Cleave skill.  
****Failure Penalty: Held Back a Year.  
****Duration: 1 Year.  
****Accept?  
****Y/N**

Oh, I'm totally accepting that! I mean, we're making weapons anyways, so why not, right? I bet this was supposed to show up back in weaponscrafting class. Eh, must have not paid attention when it told me I finished the last quest. Whatever. Beep! I hit the yes button, then move on to the Story.

**Torchwick's Dust Holdup.  
****?  
****Rewards: 10,000 XP, 50,000 Lien, ?  
****Failure Penalty: ?, Imprisonment or Death.  
****Duration: 1 Hour.  
****Expires: 2 years.  
****Warning: You should be level 9+ before activating this scenario. Beating this scenario will end the Tutorial, and you will leave Signal permanently.  
****Accept?  
****Y/N**

A moment later, _another _popup interrupt that one.

**Tutorial:**

**This is a Story Scenario. Story Scenarios will advance the plot, and present a number of branching choices, depending on how you act. Unlike most quests, the events within a Story Scenarios will change over time, from day to day. Finally, unlike Quests, Story Scenarios are rather mysterious, and don't give you much information.**

I close the popup with grumble, then glare at the original one. Okay, so I have to hit level 9 within the next two years. That doesn't sound too hard, right? I mean, Yang's level 5, and I'm pretty sure that's just from getting to third year! So all I have to do is do some extra stuff and go hunt beowolves or whatever, and get a ton of extra exp and get double the levels! Wait, that sounds hard. Hm. I'll ask Uncle Qrow or Yang. I'm sure they'll be able to help me!

In the meantime though, I want some milk. That dream from earlier's still creeping me out. I mean, a humanoid grimm? One that can look like a normal person? That's just scary! And besides, it hated sugar. How can someone hate sugar? But maybe it's not so bad? It helped that poor faunus who was being attacked, even if he was White Fang. Or was he? Maybe he just saw the mask and assumed, and- no, it doesn't matter. It was just a dream. The message even said so! It said it was a nightmare. I get some milk, then decide to wander around a bit more. I nearly got lost a couple times yesterday, might as well make sure I know where I'm going today, right? Oh, hey, there's a library! I should check it out! I reach for the door, trying to see if it's unlocked.

Strangely enough, it is, despite it being kinda late. "We don't usually get kids in here this late until later in the semester." The librarian's voice suddenly rings out from deeper in the library, and I let out a yelp of surprise.

"Oh, hi!" I say, "I'm sorry, I couldn't sleep." I kick the floor sheepishly.

"It's fine." She says, standing up so I can see her. Her name, which wasn't there until now, flickers into existence. Sapphire Lieng, Retired Huntress, Level 42, Full Health. "Hunters need to use the library once in a while, even at night, so we've got some librarians constantly here." She explains. "Feel free to use it at any time."

"Oh, awesome!" I grin cheerfully at her. "I love books." I glance around, then notice all the glittery lights. Wow, there's a LOT of skill books here.

"That's rare nowadays." The librarian comments, but smiles at me. "Any time you need to read something, feel free to come in and check out as many books as you'd like."

"Okay!" I nod, looking around. Hm. I can't use any of these skill books, because, you know, library property and they'd probably be really annoyed at me if I did, but if I write down the interesting ones somewhere, I can go and buy them later on! After I get some money. Oh! I wonder if Grimm drop loot? That would be awesome! I need to go grimm hunting and find out that as well! In the meantime, books~

I explore the library for a bit, trying to figure out where everything is. At first I ignore the fiction section, since I'm looking for skill books, not books for fun, but then I notice that there's some glitteriness coming from there as well! So I go and check it out.

There's three different books in there. One's a really really old book called "Fate/Stay Night, Unlimited Blade Works, Good End, Transcribed." One's a children's story called "The Toymaker" and the last one's "Gregor the Overlander." Well, I have no idea what those could possibly teach, so observe time!

**Tracing Skill Book.  
****A softcover black fiction book. Teaches the skill Tracing. 15 Lien.  
****Learn Skill?  
****Y/N**

Weirdly, the Y is all grayed out. I poke it anyways, and a second popup appears.

**Prerequisites not met:  
****Int: 10  
****Metal Affinity**

Huh. Those are weird prerequisites for learning how to draw. And also, totally not worth the effort. I put it back, then move onto the next book.

**Lesser Imbuement Skill Book  
****A hardcover black fiction book. Teaches the skill Lesser Imbuement. 15 Lien.  
****Learn Skill?  
****Y/N**

Oh, looks like it's fine. I wonder what Imbuement does? Does it have to do with imbuing dust into things? I'll buy one of these later, it's only 15 Lien. Now for the last book.

**Echolocation Skill Book  
****A softcover white fiction book. Teaches the skill Echolocation. 15 Lien.  
****Y/N**

... What's echolocation? Doesn't that have to do with bats or something? And how they see? I can see just fine, I don't need a skill for it! Unless it's not actually seeing... I should check. I pull my Scroll out of my invent- hey, wait, what? I stare at the inventory screen hovering innocently in front of me, even though it's totally not innocent! Oh, wait, tutorial.

**This is your inventory. You may store anything you own within it, and pull them out as you want. Your Str stat determines how much you can carry at a time.**

That's kinda cool. I thought it just told me what was in my pockets or something, and why are the scythe, sniper rifle, dust, my backpack, and my scroll in it? Well, my scroll isn't in it any more, because I took it out, but the other things are in there, and I don't remember putting them in! Although that explains why I don't remember having the sniper rifle with me when Uncle Qrow was training me with the scythe... I was wondering what happened to it!

Huh. What was I doing again? Oh, right, echolocation. Apparently it's seeing with sound? That's... I can't tell if that's actually useful. I mean, maybe if it gets dark, but then I can just flare my aura and make it bright again, can't I? Eh. I'll write it down anyways. I pull my backpack out of my inventory, pull out a binder and a pen, and write it down.

**Through good decision making, your wisdom has increased by one!**

**Tutorial:  
****As you take actions, your stats will slowly improve over time. While the rate of improvement may be high for now though, it'll quickly begin to taper off at the higher levels. We suggest that you train in a mundane fashion for the lower levels, and then use your stat points at the higher ones. Each stat can be trained differently! Experiment and find out what works. Here's some freebees: Weight Lifting can increase Strength. Sprinting can increase Agility. Running can increase Vitality. Studying can increase Intelligence. Meditating can increase Wisdom. Winning games of luck without cheating can increase Luck. Speaking of which, Good Luck!**

Oh, that was helpful! I should totally challenge Yang to Rock Paper Scissors some more! Anyway, I need to check out the nonfiction sections now. I walk over, and wow, there's a lot of skill books. Like, almost every single book is a skill book. I Observe them straight on the shelves, just, you know, walking as I do, being awesome and observing, and Observe levels a couple times. There's not a lot of interesting skill books though. Most of them are just repetitions of the same one, like History or Biology, though some of them are stuff like Biology (Ecosystems) and wait, I'm in the biology section. No wonder there's nothing good! I head over to the Dust section, there's probably something good here!

Aw. There's not. There's just stuff like Dust Refining and History (Dust), and Dust Efficiency but I already have that last one. There's also stuff like Lesser Imbuement, but this one costs 150 lien, and the Toymaker only cost 15, so I'm going to stick with the Toymaker.

Ugh. Maybe there'll be more in the Aura section? Yes. Yes there is. There's a LOT more in the Aura section. Most of the books are really old, but they're all awesome! There's stuff like Aura Barrier, which is apparently different from Aura Shield that I already have, and Fireball, and Lightning Bolt, and Flash Step, and Acid Arrow, and all sorts of neat things! The books are each about 1,500 Lien though, so I'm hoping that the monsters drop a lot. I wonder why the prices are so different, anyways? Oh, I should ask the librarian.

"Hey, Ms. Lieng?" I ask, "Why are some of the books so much more expensive than the others?"

"Did I-?" She looks confused for a moment, before shrugging. "Must have. Um, the more expensive ones are usually either rarer or more useful." She explains. "For example, childrens stories usually cost a lot less than something like a book on dust imbuement, because imbuing dust into our weapons is far more useful. On the other hand, most of the books in the Aura Skills section are rarely used, but they're also extremely rare because no one produces them anymore. Of course, the reason they don't produce them is because almost no one buys them. We only have them because we get the occasional hunter who, for whatever reason, dislikes using guns, and they rarely bother to buy them, because they can just come here and grab a copy, or look at one on their scrolls."

"Gotcha." I nod, "But if I were interested in getting a copy of one that would end up getting destroyed, where would I get it?"

"If you think it might get destroyed, it's encouraged that you simply use a copy on your scroll." She says, not understanding my question, which makes sense, because she doesn't know about my Semblance.

"No, I mean, my Semblance lets me learn whatever skills are in a book really really quickly, but it destroys the book." I explain.

"Are you certain it requires you to destroy the book?" She gives me a pained look.

I nod sadly. "Uh huh. So I can't use the library, and I don't want to test it with my scroll, because I'm not sure what would happen."

"Yes, I can see why that would be a bad idea." She sighs, then looks at me curiously. "Actually, would you be why Mr. Qrow requested that we give him any books that were in danger of being removed from the library?"

"Um, maybe?" I say uncertainly.

"Well, wait until then. If there's any further books that you need, I'd be happy to direct you to a couple of rather good book stores. They won't reliably have any of the rarer ones, but they'll occasionally get them if you check in regularly. Although I would like to ask that you try and get a copy made of any particularly rare ones, if only so the knowledge won't be lost."

"Oh, that's a good idea! Thanks!" After that, I leave the library, to head back to our Dorm. I'm not really tired, but we do have classes tomorrow.

* * *

**You have slept peacefully. Your HP, SP, and AP have been restored.**

**You have gained the Well Rested Status Effect.**

**Tutorial:  
****Status Effects can be checked in the Afflictions menu! Some of them are beneficial, some are detrimental. Each Status Effect should be measured individually.**

Ugh. I'm not in the mood for this. I close the menu, then grab my stuff for class, tossing everything into my inventory so I don't have to carry it. Then I'm off to class. They pass without much happening, although during the physical conditioning part of the combat class, I gain a point of Vitality, so that's good! And since I actually try to pay attention during History, I get a point of Intelligence and the History skill as well. Not that the History skill seems to _do_ anything. It doesn't even have a passive effect like the rest of my skills do! And it's a passive skill! It just says, "Modifies Observation" without explaining how it modifies Observation. And I tried out Observing things to see how it was affected, and as far as I can tell, it wasn't. Although I totally got another level of Observation out of it.

Well, anyway, the school day ends, and I meet up with Uncle Qrow and Yang.

"Hello, Ruby." Uncle Qrow says, "Yang will be joining us today. We'll be seeing if there's any more skills you can learn. If there are, we'll test them out. Otherwise, we're heading into the forest. I'll attract a baby Beowulf, and you'll kill it, alone. After that, I'll get another one, and I'll help you kill it. The next one, Yang will help you kill. And then Yang _and_ I will help you kill a fourth one. Keep track of how much experience you gain each time. If at any point you feel like you're in over your head, or if your HP drops below 50%, retreat. I'll step in, and we'll try again after you're a bit more skilled. Understand?" I nod eagerly. "Good. Yang, if Ruby seems to be in trouble, step in as well. If this is anything like a game, your assistance will have less of an impact than my own." Yang nods, as if it's perfectly obvious that she should do that, which is kinda nice. "First though..." Uncle Qrow waves his scythe at the cardboard boxes next to him. "Ruby, I asked the library to give me any books they're planning on getting rid of for whatever reason. Check through them and see if you can get any new skills. Once we've got a good selection, you can start working on a fighting style."

I nod even more eagerly, and then throw myself at the books. There's not that many, and most of them are too damaged to be usable. I find another copy of the Toymaker, for example, but it's missing a bunch of pages, so Observe just calls it a Damaged Book instead of a skill book. By the end of it though, I've picked up a trio of new skills, which is awesome! I'm learning so many skills! Oh, but I'll have to train them all, won't I? Ugh.

Anyway, the skills are Lesser Imbuement from another copy of the Toymaker, Repair from The Handyman's Guide to Kitchens, and Precise Blow from the Treatise on the Importance of Precision. Awesomely, Repair and Precise Blow are both SP based skills, so I can totally use them when my Aura runs out!

"Ready!" I announce as the last book bursts into light. He nods, glancing at the rest.

"I expected more of them to be skill books." He admits.

"They were." I agree, "But they're really really damaged,so they don't count as skill books any more."

"Well that makes sense." Yang points out, "Her semblance is just taking the knowledge from the book, right? So if there's no knowledge to take, she doesn't get anything."

"It does mean you'll have to put more effort into procuring new skills." Uncle Qrow muses. "Oh well. The fact that you can do this at all is useful enough. No point complaining that it's not _more_ useful. Now we need to be on our way."

"Hell yeah!" Yang cheers, "Let's do this! C'mon sis!" She and Uncle Qrow quickly lead me to the forest, which, by the way, was a lot brighter and way more cheerful than you'd expect a monster infested forest to be.

"Wait here. Yang, hide at the edge of the clearing. Don't let the beowulf spot you. Ruby, you're in the center of the clearing. Get your- wait, where are your weapons?"

"Inventory." I say cheerfully, then pull out the scythe and rifle. "See? It holds stuff for me! It's awesome!"

"... We'll experiment with that later." Uncle Qrow decides before he continues giving orders. "Anyway, get your weapons ready, and here." He tosses me a red Dust crystal. "Use this to power your fireball if you have to use it. Try to keep it near the middle of the clearing, there isn't much terrain to worry about here. If you need help, just call out. Understand?" I nod, and he turns towards- I mean, deeper towards the forest. "Good. I'll get the first beowulf here in about a minute. Stand ready."

He launches himself forwards and out of our view. Yang makes her way into a tree to hide, quickly reassuring me that she'll be here. I nod, fighting the urge to go hug her, and ready my scythe. About a minute later, the beowulf appears. The black, wolf-like creature's obviously young, both due to it's lack of bones on the surface and the words "Young Beowulf, Level 3, Full HP" floating above it's head. I quickly tag it with an Observe, which gives me a LOT more information than I expected.

**Young Beowulf.  
****Level 3, XP 17.4%  
****HP: 45/45  
****SP: 50/50  
****AP: N/A  
****Str: 6  
****Agi: 4  
****Vit: 4  
****Int: 1  
****Wis: 3  
****Luk: 2  
****Visible Skills:  
****Bite Level 7: Deals 1D10+8, Accuracy 15, Crit Chance 2.3%. XP 92%  
****Precise Strike Level 3: Crit Chance increased by 3% for 1 attack. Costs 5 SP. XP 35%  
****Power Blow Level 1: Damage increased by 10% for 1 attack. Costs 5 SP. XP 33%**

... Well that was pretty interesting. I wonder if that works on my allies as well? I'd be able to tell what stats Yang has! This is awesome! Oh, wait, evil wolf to take care of, right. I grab the Dust Crystal tightly, and activate a fireball, launching it at the beowulf, which dodges. I heft the scythe, burning another 30 AP to bring my strength up to where I can actually use the thing, then rush forwards. The creature isn't very strong, it'll only do a maximum of 18 damage per attack, a minimum of 9, and an average of 13.5. Since 90% of that would hit my auric pool, I can take about 2 hits without flinching. The rest will actually hit my hit points. Oh well, I'll deal with that when it became a problem. In the meantime... The Grimm dodges my first blow, only to be caught off guard when I kick it in the jaw, making it stagger backwards, and dealing... 10 damage. Huh, not bad. I must have gotten a good blow. I quickly sweep my scythe towards it, only to have to leap back out of the way when the grimm tries to bite me, grazing my arm for 3 damage, 2 of which hits my Aura. I burn another 10 AP to smack it point blank with a fireball, doing another 9 damage. So that's 18 done so far, and I'm down to 18 the other hand, the Beowulf should be down to 26 HP, so there. Nyeh.

The Beowulf lets out an angry howl before charging at me, or more accurately, at my scythe based Power Attack. 5 SP is definitely worth the 26 damage that slams into it, bringing it neatly down to 0. I kick it in the face again, just to be safe. It melts back into the shadow-stuff that it's made from, leaving behind... loot? I didn't actually expect it to leave loot! Awesome! It's just 3 Lien and a milligram of red Dust, already in a nice little vial, but still! That's a lot more than I expected!

"Did you just get loot?" Uncle Qrow's voice is completely baffled as he comes out of the trees.

"Uh huh!" I chirp cheerfully.

"So your semblance doesn't just affect you, it affects the world around you?" He sounds kinda amazed and unbelieving, despite the fact that he totally just saw that.

"I dunno. I guess." I shrug. "I'm kinda low on Aura by the way, and oh! Exp! I got... 432 XP? That's awesome!" I cheer.

"How long will it take you to recover?" He asks patiently. I pout, pulling up my Status. I hadn't ever checked my regeneration rates, and now I'm curious.

**Ruby Rose  
****Title: Newbie  
****Semblance: The Gamer  
****Level 1 (244/1000 XP, 53.3%)  
****Health: 58/59 (.35/ minute)  
****Stamina: 53/58 (.32/minute)  
****Aura: 28/80 (.40/minute)  
****Str: 5 (5.6)  
****Agi: 7 (7.7)  
****Vit: 6  
****Int: 8  
****Wis: 5  
****Luk: 7  
****Points: 0  
****Money: 0 Lien**

Hey, why is it still saying I have 0? I just got some Lien! Or maybe it doesn't count until I put it in my inventory? I do, and a moment later the readout changes.

**Money: 3 Lien**

So, that wasn't very much. At all. Maybe it was because I killed something so weak? I bet once I get to the higher levels, I'll have tons of Lien!

"Well?" Uncle Qrow asks patiently.

"Oh! Right! Um... looks like I restore 4 tenths of an Aura Point each minute, and I spent 52 aura, so... yeah. It'll take a while."

"Yes, that's the other main issue with fighting in that style." Uncle Qrow admits, "It burns up large amounts of your Aura. That's why guns and the like are considered so useful. Well, the next one we'll be fighting together. Ruby, pull out your rifle, move to the back and into the treeline. The second you get a good shot, take it. After that, I'll take it out. Then we'll take a little break."

"Oh! During the break can I fight a bit?" Yang asks excitedly. "I didn't get the chance!"

"Sure." Uncle Qrow says, "I'll guard Ruby for those fights, so she doesn't get attacked while she's recovering."

"Hey!" I protest. "I've still got Stamina! I can totally defend myself, I just won't be able to use any of my Aura abilities!"

"Yes, but you might level." Uncle Qrow pointed out, "And that would make the math extremely difficult. Wait until we've tested all four ways of doing things, and then you can both go wild."

"Awesome!" Yang cheers, "C'mon sis! Let's kick some Grimm butt!"

"Yeah!" I agree. "Wait. I think I missed something."

Uncle Qrow rolls his eyes, going off to get another Young Beowulf for us to fight while I try and figure it out. Before I do, he returns, the Beowulf following him. I level the sniper rifle, then fire off a shot, which misses miserably, and causes the rifle to slam backwards and knock me over. Ouch. I quickly flip over, this time using the bipod, and make my second shot. It catches to Beowulf in the chest, dealing 72 damage and taking it out. "Good shot, sis!" Yang cheers from beside me. This time I only get 1 XP. Must be because Uncle Qrow's a really high level. Oh, but it drops loot again! Uncle Qrow picks it up, looking it over. "Hm. Looks like it's real money." He finally decides, sounding amused. The other item is... a tooth of some sort. "Ruby, do you mind using your Observe skill on this?" He asks.

**Beowulf Fang  
****This is the fang of a Beowulf. It can be used in alchemy.**

"It's a beowulf fang?" I say doubtfully, "I thought their bodies just faded though?"

"They do." Uncle Qrow frowns. "I guess your Semblance is a lot more powerful than I'd originally guessed."

"I wonder what you can do with it?" Yang asks curiously.

"Alchemy, apparently." I say absently before I toss it into my inventory. "Whatever. C'mon Sis! Let's get ready for the next one!"

Uncle Qrow nods. "Right. I'll go get it." He disappears, reappearing a few minutes later with another Beowulf. Yang attacks it first, slamming her fist into it's leg, shattering it. I follow up with a Power Attack with the scythe, taking out it's foreleg. Yang finishes it by smashing through it's skull-like mask, and slamming her fist through it's head. It dissipates, giving me only 180 XP... though that's still more than I got from that quest.

"So you level up fastest when you're alone, slightly slower with Yang, and not at all with me." Uncle Qrow summarizes. "I see. And I have no reason to believe you'd level up any faster if I were to assist as well. Very well. Ruby, how much more EXP do you need?"

"Um, I'm at 713 EXP." I answer after checking. "And I need 1000." He nods his head. "Get your sniper rifle ready. You were able to take out the last one in a single shot. I'll get the last one here. Yang, get ready to step in if she misses."

"Got it!" Yang said cheerfully. I pulled out the sniper, and assembled the bipod, aiming it at the end of the clearing that the beowulf was going to emerge from. A moment later it did, and I pulled the trigger. The bullet smashed straight into it, taking it out, and giving me an extra 432 exp. Enough to level up and gain 5 stat points!

"I leveled!" I cheer. Qrow nods at me.

"Good. How are you planning on distributing your points?" He asks patiently.

"I'll do what you suggested yesterday." I decide. "2 in Intelligence and Wisdom, and 1 into Vitality."

"Good. Do it, and then we'll try one more controlled fight. After that, you two can go wild."

"Great!" Yang grins, "I was starting to get a bit bored."

I nod, quickly distributing my mana points. Qrow brings in the last wolf, and I shoot it. It goes down, and I jerk in surprise as I realize there's a small symbol floating in the upper corner of my vision. I tap it, and it brings up my skill screen, where a pair of my skills are highlighted. "Oh! My Sniper Mastery and my Sniper Rifle skill both leveled! And I made a bunch of progress on Dust Efficiency and Channel Aura" I say, pleased. He frowns thoughtfully.

"Hm. You don't seem to be using your dust skills very much... okay, let's try this. Ruby, practice with the fire bolt skill a couple times, then switch to hunting Beowolves with Yang until it recovers. During that time, try to snipe out foes as you can. Your sniper rifle uses Dust, so it must be increasing your efficiency with it and your aura. Yang, you're our main brawler. Ruby, don't hit her, try to aim at targets that aren't near her, in fact, we don't want you accidentally hitting her. If it seems like she missed something, just shout at her and warn her. Understood?"

"Got it." I nod firmly. Yang grins, giving him a salute.

"I'll get a small pack of them here. You guys get ready." He warns, disappearing again.

* * *

Training goes pretty uneventfully. I level again, distributing the stats the same way (but with Luck instead of vitality this time), and so does Yang, but I have no idea if that actually means anything, because you know, not a video game for her. After all that, Yang and I decide to call it a day, and we return to bed. The day comes to an end. I find myself unable to sleep, so I decide to take a seat, and try out some of my newer skills. One that won't wake her up. So, meditation. When I come out of the trance, it's the next morning, and Yang's shaking me, looking worried.

"Jeez, did you do that all night?" She asks. I nod, not feeling even slightly tired.

"I leveled it up... five times!" I say cheerfully, checking quickly. "And I got a point of Wisdom!"

"But are you okay?" She asks, poking me. "You don't seem even slightly tired!"

"I'm not." I blink at her. "Maybe it's because I was meditating, and it's like sleeping?"

"I don't think that's how meditation works, little sis." She says sounding a bit doubtful. "You sure you're not tired?"

"I'm fine. And besides, what else could it be?" I ask reasonably. She nods, pouting slightly, but eventually we decide to go get breakfast. Which is delicious! Cookies! And milk! And other sugary things! Unfortunately, we don't manage to find a free spot, so we end up sitting with some of Yang's friends. While they talk, I decide to mess around with my stats and skills and stuff some more, and see what I can work on.

My stats are a pretty nice spread. Str: 5, Agi: 7, Vit: 7, Int: 12, Wis: 10, Luk: 8. I've also got a ton of cool skills, but the most important one right now seems to be Dust Efficiency. It's at 52% progress, but still at level one, so I'm really curious what'll happen when it levels. I cautiously pull out my Crystal, wondering if channeling Aura through it will improve my efficiency, or if I actually have to do something with it. Although that'll use up some of my crystal, won't it? Hm. I wonder how I can do this? How many uses of my crystal do I have left anyways?

I glance down at it, Observing it.

**Red Dust Crystal, 4.527 grams  
****Red Dust compacted into a crystalline form, Red Dust Crystals can be used to power Dust abilities that use Red Dust.**

**Tutorial:  
****Dust is a catalyst for Auras, allowing you to more easily change your aura to the same type of element as the Dust. We realize that most catalysts aren't used up, but Dust is rather odd like that. Dust can be imbued into items, activated with the Aura, or even imbued into people in order to gain a False Affinity.**

... Okay, the tutorial was useless, but wow, that's a lot of dust. Doesn't my ability only use 1 Milligram? So I can use it like, five thousand times! That's awesome! But why did it grow so much smaller that I felt it? Did I imagine it? Or do I just have the scale of one milligram of Dust wrong in my head? Ugh. So many questions!

"Hey, Yang?" I ask her during a lull in her conversation with... Moss. He's a level 3. Whatever. So am I, so hah! Where was I? Oh yeah. "How much is a milligram of Dust? Because this is 4.527 grams, but I thought I felt it when I used a milligram."

"It probably decompressed first." She explains, "The Dust is really compressed in the crystal form, so when it decompresses back into it's usable form, it temporarily gets a lot bigger. That's why we store it in Crystals."

"Oh. I thought that was just because it's easier to carry." I mumble.

"No, but that's a real _gem_ of an idea. Eh?" She pokes me, and I giggle, knocking her hand away.

"Yaaaang." I pout. She just grins at me. "Oh, whatever. I'm going to practice my flame bolts before class starts."

She laughs as I leave the dining hall, and start walking towards one of the practice rooms. I quickly find one, then get to practicing with fire bolts. I manage to get off seven before I'm out of Aura, so I decide to sit down and Mediate. And then I find out that doing so apparently boosts my Aura recovery to, like, 10 while I'm doing it! They didn't put that on the skill description. Jerks.

A bit later, the bell rings, and I head to history class. Which is boring. Very boring. Then comes Math. Also boring. Then weapon crafting. Not boring! We get assigned to work with people and discuss weapon ideas, and I'm assigned to a kid named Sterling. He's a jerk. I thought he was awesome at first, because his hair's gray, you know, like my eyes, and he gets pretty excited about weapons as well, unlike everyone else who's just like, 'oh, you use them to kill things' but then he was like, "Scythes are impractical" and I'm like "Nuh uh" and he was like, "Uh huh, because the cutting part is on the inside, which is way too close to you for a polearm, and too unwieldy" and I was like, "You don't cut with it, you stab people with it" and then he was like, "Nuh uh, because then it'll get stuck" and then next thing I know we're trying to stab each other, and then we're both in detention. And now I'm BORED.

"You suck." I grumble at him.

"It's your fault too!" He protests, glaring at me.

"Nuh uh!" I counter, "You said Scythes suck!"

"No I didn't!" He complains, "I just said they're impractical!"

"They are not!" I argue, "Uncle Qrow uses one!"

"And he's one of the most skilled hunters _ever_." He points out. At first I'm confused because I think he's arguing one of my points, but then he continues, "Which means he could probably attack a Grimm with a rusty paperclip and be barely handicapped. He can use a scythe because _he's _really good, not because the weapon is."

"Well, I'm going to get that good as well!" I grumble.

"Okay." He says immediately, taking the wind out of my sails of being offended. "But that doesn't change the nature of the weapon, it just means that you're good despite it. It's not helping you, it's making you worse. Well, no, _anything_ makes you better than being unarmed, but a scythe is still not a practical weapon unless there's something unusual going on."

"Well, I'm planning on putting a sniper rifle into it." I say firmly.

"How does that-" He begins. I speak over him, because he's being a jerk, and insulting scythes.

"And I'm going to use the blade as a bipod when I need stability, and when I don't, I'm going to trail it behind me, and use the recoil from the gun to launch myself forward, and the blade's going to hit anyone nearby, and it's going to be awesome, so there!"

"... Okay, that actually seems kind of cool." He admits. I make a triumphant noise, which quickly turns afraid as Yang appears in the doorway.

"Ruby, dear sister!" She says, giving me an evil look, "Is there any reason you have a detention for brawling in class?"

"... Because I got into a fight during class?" I offer sheepishly.

"Good job!" Yang says, giving me a thumbs up, and a wide grin. "But try not to get into trouble over it next time, okay? So don't do it during class next time. Wait until lunch."

"Okay!" I agree happily.

* * *

AN: Levels Gained! Okay, so on how XP is gained during a fight. 10 encounters of your level should be enough to level you up. You need 1000*your level to, you know, level. Thus a creature grants 100* it's level normally. Level differences adjust this. If something's a higher level, you get *1.2 for each level above you it is. If something's a lower level, you get *.5 for each level lower. If multiple people are involved in the fight, XP is split among them. The lower leveled characters are treated as being at the average level of the party, while the higher leveled ones are treated as being at their own level.

Sterling: My first **Shudder** OC. Sterling's probably going to be unimportant in the long run, but Ruby needs school friends, so he's probably going to keep popping up for now. And it seems very much more believable that Ruby met a friend by getting into a fight (read chasing him around with a scythe) with him after he insulted her choice of weapons, rather than through social gracefulness. Especially since the Remnant's combat schools seem like they'd be a lot more forgiving of fights if both people are obviously not taking it seriously (as opposed to our schools, where you get stuff like suspensions). Auras make most wounds less likely to be lethal, and the place's nature as a school for people learning how to kill things means that fighting isn't exactly disliked. There's punishment, of course, but you're not going to get kicked out over it. (See the food fight in Volume 2. And consider that they literally stab leeks through tables, and smash each other through ceilings.) Of course, actually try to KILL someone, or even attempt to maim them permanently, and it's a different story. But until your Aura drops below 25%, you're unlikely to get hurt, so... yeah. Fights. The only reason they're discouraged at all is because they don't want the kids to pick up the bad habit of attacking other people.

Final thing: Does anyone have any objections to me putting Ruby's character sheet post-chapter at the end of these Author's Notes? It'll inflate the word-count and length a bit, which always annoys me when I see it, but it might be useful for keeping track of her abilites, so... yeah. Also, the skill list. Geez, the skill list. It's horribly inflated, and she's probably going to use most of it only in rare situations, if at all, but all the skills are still being tracked.


	3. Chapter 3: L33t 5ki11z

Chapter 3

I don't feel tired that night either, so I decide to work on a skill until I do. There's so many, it'd take _ages_ to learn them, so I might as well use my time efficiently right? Last night, I did Meditation, so I decide to do breathing exercises, before realizing that I don't really have any SP skills that cost a lot, so there doesn't really seem to be a point. So I then I decide on working on Perfect Body, but the second I try to activate it, I feel the urge to start doing exercise, so that's out too. I open up my skill list, looking through it for something I can do without waking up Yang.

There aren't any, really, so I decide to do some more meditation. Having more AP seems useful. As I sit down though, I hear my scroll beep. I grab it, checking the message. Dad sent me congratulations on unlocking my Semblance. Uncle Qrow must have told him. I type back a quick thanks, then close the message. As I'm about to log off, I get an idea, and quickly check online for ways to train my Aura Channeling and Dust Efficiency skills. Even if Dust Efficiency seems kinda pointless with how much I have, it might still be useful. And Aura Channeling just sounds really cool. And if I get Dust Efficiency up high enough, I can probably use Lesser Imbuement without much trouble, so I can see what it actually does! Right now it just says that I can imbue an object with a Dust ability. A message from my Semblance tells me that even if I don't find anything, looking was a good idea, because I just got a point of Wisdom. I should do stuff like this more often!

In the meantime though, the only things I manage to find basically come down to, "Practice manipulating Dust." Which is, you know, good advice, I guess, but not really useful, you know? I mean, I thought of that earlier, I just didn't think there was any point in it. I sigh, grabbing the first, smaller crystal that Uncle Qrow had given me. It's only about half a gram, so it's not much bigger than a small shard, but it's enough to channel my aura through. I feed a bit of Aura into it, and watch it glow a soft red. Then I open my skills list to see if doing it helps with my Aura Channeling and Dust Efficiency at all. And hey, it does! Wait, I think that's because it just unlocked a new skill.

**Light. Level 1. Active Skill. Dust Ability. 20 Aura.**

**Creates a light using your aura. Using 1 milligram of any color Dust decreases the cost by 75%. The amount of Dust required depends on your Dust Efficiency. The brightness depends on your Intelligence. Maintaining this ability costs you 10 Aura per minute.**

Huh. That's kinda useful, I guess. But it costs a lot less than any of my other Dust Abilities. I wonder why? I let the glow fade from the crystal, then raise my right hand and concentrate. The skill flicks active, and a moment later a soft white glow, about as bright as a candle flame appears. I get the feeling that it can get brighter, so I try to turn it up as high as it can get. It gets to about the level of a small campfire, but without, you know, fire, before I get the feeling I've hit the max that I can do. I glance at my stats. I spent 5 AP creating the first flame, and then another 20, so that's 25 out of 180 used up already. Oddly, it seems to be slowly draining away, at a rate of about 1 every five or so seconds. I count, and it seems to be one every seven and a half seconds. I frown at it. If I'm paying 10 Aura every minute, shouldn't I lose 1 every six seconds? Oh! I open my status window, and check my regeneration rate. Yup, with my new point of Wisdom, I'm regaining almost two points per minute! Awesome!

I pass the whole night switching between creating light, maintaining it for as long as I can, then meditating until my AP recovers. By the next morning, I'm 85% of the way to my next level of Meditation, have 3 levels in Light, and 2 levels in Aura Channeling. Interestingly, the Aura cost goes down as my level in it increases, which means I'm totally spending this weekend practicing Fire Bolt until that Aura Cost goes down, because fire! And Yang also has fire, so we can be the Fire sisters!

The morning begins with Yang staring at me. "What are you doing?" She asks, staring at the ball of light in my hand.

"I'm practicing!" I say cheerfully, then pause. "But wait. I was going to practice dust efficiency. But I'm not using Dust. I'm just doing this with my Aura. Oh, but it helps my Aura Channeling skill! It doesn't seem to have helped though, the skill still says it costs me 100% for all my abilities." I pout.

"... Didn't you sleep?" Yang asks, frowning at me. "Ruby that's not healthy!"

"I don't feel tired!" I protest, "At all! I think it's the Gamer's Mind thing, honestly, I mean, no one ever sleeps in video games unless it's part of the plot, or unless they want some sort of special bonus." I point out, "And for me, I think the bonus is that it fully restores my stats, and gives me some condition called Well Rested."

"Yeah, most people are well rested after they sleep." Yang mutters, sounding frustrated. "Whatever, just promise me you'll take care of yourself, okay?"

"I will, don't worry!" I promise.

"You better not make me worry," She grumbles, "Now let's get some breakfast, and then you can explain why you're making your hand glow."

"I will." I say cheerfully. We head to the cafeteria, then off to class. The day passes without anything really interesting happening until weaponcrafting class, where I run into Sterling again. "Hey." I say, awkwardly. Last time I talked to him, I got us both into detention.

"Hey." He replies, nodding. "So how are your blueprints coming along?"

"Huh? Oh, right. Um, I've managed to figure out what metals I'll need to use." I reply with a kinda sheepish shrug.

"I heard that shifting weapons are a lot harder than normal ones." He says sympathetically. I nod in annoyance. Just doing homework last night pushed my level of Weaponcrafter up to 5. It seems like it's really easy to get through the first few levels of any skill, up to 10 or something. After that though, they start slowing down, and the same actions give a lot less progress to the next level. Yang thinks that I need more XP per level or actions grant less XP if they're lower level. I think it might be both, but it's really hard to tell, since it doesn't exactly notify me every single time.

"But it'll be worth it." I vow. He chuckles, and we both get to work. A few moments later, we find ourselves arguing about the benefits of polearms vs. more close ranged weapons. He keeps arguing that low reach weapons like swords are better because they're more precise, and don't need quite as much strength, while I argue that higher reach weapons like scythes and axes give you more leverage, and let you deal more damage.

The argument ends as we head off to our next class, and have to split up. I have history, which I plan to spend playing with my Aura and meditating, while he has conditioning class, which is supposed to get you into shape. I'm kinda excited for that one, because even if it's supposed to be really brutal, I bet it'll help me raise my physical stats a lot! Of course, the brutal exercise part sounds kinda not-fun, but still.

Anyway, history is boring, and I spend it creating and maintaining a light, then meditating while I maintain it. Weirdly, doing two things at once doesn't lower how quickly I get better at any of the skills, so I'm totally going to meditate while I do anything that doesn't require much attention from now on.

Finally, conditioning class starts. It's definitely useful, and I end it with an extra point in strength. After that, we do weapon drills, and so on. The day comes to a close, leading into the next. And then the next. And then the next. And then it's the weekend. I've managed to gather a point couple points in Strength and one in agility and wisdom by this point, as well as leveling up various Aura skills, including my Light (7), Channel Aura (6), Dust Efficiency (3), Meditation (8), Strengthen (5), Speed Boost (4), and Flame Bolt (3) skills. I also got a chance to work on my more mundane skills like Weaponcrafting (7), Two Handed Axe (7), Axe Mastery (6), Sniper Rifle (5), and Sniper Mastery (4) . How'd I manage to do that? Well I don't sleep any more. I'm pretty sure it's my Gamer's Mind ability or something, but I just never feel tired! It's great! I usually use the more subtle abilities at night, when Yang's sleeping, the more blatant ones I just spam durring class.

The best part is that Flame Bolt's cost has dropped to 85 at Base, so it's only 21 to use if I use Dust, and I have an Aura Pool of 204 now! It's great! When Uncle Qrow shows up to take me and Yang out to go training, I immediately explain all of that to him. I also explain that this is how I've managed to use up an entire Dust Crystal, but I managed to practice stuff anyways because my Aura Pool's high enough to actually use some skills, even without a crystal. He asks me a couple questions, then gives me a new way to spend my stat points, suggesting I put them all in intelligence.

"Why?" I give him a confused look.

"Well, as far as I can tell, while wisdom _does_ increase your aura regeneration rate, that rate is mainly based on how much mana you have total." He explains, "Each point of wisdom seems to result in about a tenth of a percent of your Aura regenerating per minute. However, each point of Int increases your Aura by 17 with the boost from your meditation. And since raising the meditation skill seems to require very little effort on your part, and it increases your mana pool as well, right now, getting your Int as high as possible seems to be the most beneficial path for an immense Aura Pool. After it's at a decent level, we can go back and raise your Wisdom to match it. Furthermore, you mentioned that it's more difficult to raise high level skills and stats with training than low level ones?"

I nod, mentally checking his words for anything that's not right as he continues speaking. "Then for right now, it's best to focus on getting one stat high with your stat points, and raising the rest through more mundane training methods. Since you're meditating a lot anyways, we might as well let it benefit your Wisdom as much as possible for as long as possible. Understand?" Thinking it over, I nod. Hadn't a tutorial said something like that yesterday? Level the low level stuff by doing normal training, and the high level stuff with stat points?

"Yeah, you're right." I finally say, then smile at him. "Thanks!"

"Good." He nods. "Now, I wanted to know how your leadership skill works."

"I dunno." I shrug. "It doesn't seem to do anything either."

"Yes, not _yet_." He says. "Probably because its level is so low. So what we're going to do is see if you can take Yang and myself as Followers, and if you can, we'll find out what that means. And then we're going to try and level up your leadership skill."

"Why?" I stare at him in confusion.

"Because the wording implies that when it's at a higher level, your followers will become stronger." He explains patiently. "And if your Semblance affects the world around you like I believe it does, then any of your Followers should be temporarily able to use abilities similar to yours."

"Oooh!" I nod, then open my skill menu, tapping on the Leadership skill to see if it brings up any hints. It doesn't. "Hm..." I glare at it. "I have no idea what to do." I say firmly.

"So you don't have a lead?" Yang asks. Uncle Qrow gives her a look, and she gives him an unapologetic smile.

"Yeah." I sigh, ignore the pun. "I mean, usually a tutorial would pop up around now."

"Perhaps the option is on one of the other screens you mentioned?" Uncle Qrow offers. I shrug, opening and closing menus as Uncle Qrow begins talking to Yang about her classes. It sounds awesome, they're already doing sparring, and apparently Yang's Semblance is helping her beat a lot of- oh there it is!

"I found it!" I say excitedly. I pull up a menu with a small speaker button in the upper right hand corner, and a large box labeled "Party Members." As I do, a tutorial pops up.

**Tutorial:**

**The Party option allows you to have others join your Party. In order to invite, say Invite [Insert Full Name Here]. You must keep an image of your target in mind. You may not invite people who are more than 10 levels ahead of you into your party. When in a Party, all members are treated as having fought in any combat, even if not all of them are there. Each Party member also has access to a set of Secondary Status Bars that keep track of the condition of all other party members, in addition to their own status bars. The person who created the Party is referred to as the Party Leader. Any who have joined the party are referred to as Followers. The number of people allowed in a party depends on the Leadership skill of the Party Leader.**

Okay! Invite Yang Xiao Long.

"Gah!" Yang suddenly shouts. "A bit more warning next time? Okay, so I just poke accept on the blue box, right? As if it's a touch screen?"

"Yup!" I say cheerfully. She reaches up, poking the accept button.

**Yang Xiao Long has joined Ruby Rose's Party!**

"Whoa. This is kinda cool." Yang mutters, obviously looking at the bars in her vision.

"And me?" Uncle Qrow asks patiently. I shrug.

"I'm sorry, Uncle Qrow, it says I can't invite anyone more than ten levels above me." I apologize.

"It's fine." He decides, "At least we know a little bit more now. Ruby, pull up your status-"

"Whoa!" Yang lets out a startled yelp. "I've got one too!"

"Really?" I look at her, and sure enough, there's a blue status screen floating in front of her, and aren't those supposed to be invisible to other people?

"What does it say?" Uncle Qrow asks. Huh? So it's still invisible to him? But not to me? Is it because we're in a party, or because it's my semblance?

"Yang Xiao Long." Yang reads out. "Semblance: Burning Dragon. Title: Blood Knight. Level 5. 46.5% XP. Health: 256 out of 256, 5.8 regenerated per minute. Aura: 120 out of 120, .84 regenerated per minute. Stamina: 281 out of 281, 4.2 regenerated per minute. Strength: 25, in parentheses, 33.25. Agility: 11, in parentheses, 12.76. Vitality: 19. Intelligence: 12. Wisdom: 7. Luck: 5. Points: 0. Lien, 0. Hey what's with-"

"I think we start at 5." I quickly interject. She grumbles, but continues speaking, which is weird, because that's where my status screen stops.

"Skills." She says. I blink in surprise. I guess since she's not The Gamer, her skills are on the same menu? "Armorcrafting, Level 1: Allows creation of armor. Aura Shield, level 15. Damage Converted: 90.75%. Auric Damage taken: 86%. Burning Dragon, Level 29. Converts 14.5% of initial damage taken into a percentage based boost to Strength for the next minute. Channel Aura: Level 19. 97% of the regular amount of Aura is required to achieve the given effect. Motorbike, Level 19: Skill at operating a motorbike. Power Blow, level 21: Deal an additional 50% damage with your next attack. Costs 5 SP. Regenerate, Level 23: HP Regained per second, 23. Damage to Auric Pool 78% of HP restored. Shotgun, Level 29: Determines chance to hit. Shotgun Mastery, Level 15: Damage dealt, 205%, Range Bonus, 15%. Speed Boost, Level 7: Passive Boost, 116%. Active Boost +16% per 10 AP Spent. Strengthen, Level 23: Same, but 133% and 33%. Unarmed Mastery, Level 17: Damage Dealt, 185%, Accuracy Bonus, 85%. Unarmed Strike, Level 27: Determines Chance to hit. Weaponcrafting, Level 9: Allows the creation of weapons."

"..." Uncle Qrow pulls out a pen and paper, and hands them to her. "Write it down, please." He says calmly. Yang groans, but quickly begins copying everything over.

"Two years of experience don't seem to have made as much a difference as I would expect." He says thoughtfully.

I shrug. "Well, I do have the Gamer Semblance, and I'm still below level 10 for all of my skills." I point out, "And I'm pretty sure she has more stat points than me over all. _And_ I'm already level 3, which is much more common with second years than first years."

"True. So basic level isn't everything, or even close to everything, really." Uncle Qrow says thoughtfully. "Okay, instead of going Grimm hunting, Ruby, focus on regular classes."

"Um, I kinda need to be level 9 before the end of next year for a quest. It's called Torchwick's Dust Holdup." I interject sheepishly. "Oh, wait, never mind. It just _suggests_ being level 9. And it says it ends the tutorial, and results in leaving Signal, so on second thought, let's not do this one."

Uncle Qrow frowns thoughtfully. "Presumably there's a reason you need to be a certain level. It can't just be your minimum stats, or they'd probably say that. Maybe levels have some sort of effect we don't know about?"

"Probably." I agree. "Anyway, in the meantime, what are we going to do?"

"... We'll follow my original plan for the day for now." He eventually decides. "I've arranged for a small mission dealing with a pack of beowulfs that have escaped the forest. The two of you are going to kill them, and more importantly, the leader of the pack. If you need help, call me in. At the end of this, tell me what increases your Leadership skill, what doesn't, so on and so forth. Understood? Yang, Ruby's going to have to be in charge for the Leadership, but don't be afraid to pull her out, okay? Take care of each other." We both nod. "Okay, after you've killed the beowulfs, call me, then make your way to the Slatestone markets, and we'll go shopping."

"Awesome!" I cheer, "Can we get more books? And some more Dust Crystals?"

"Sure, anything for you, Yang?"

"I need more hair stuff." She says, shrugging, "Oh, and some cool shades! Other than that though, I'm good."

"Then it's time to begin. I've sent the location to your scrolls."

**Quest Created**

**Extermination: Beowulf Pack**

**You've been ordered to find and destroy a pack of beowulfs.**

**Rewards: 500 XP.**

**Failure Penalty: None**

**Duration: 1 Day.**

**Accept?**

**Y/N**

"Huh?" Yang lets out a surprised cry as the blue box appears in front of her.

"It's a quest!" I say in surprise.

Uncle Qrow smiles. "I was wondering if that would work." He admits. "So get to it, girls."

I salute cheerfully, accept the quest, then pull out my scroll to see where we're supposed to be headed. "Huh. Yang, are we going to be taking Bumblebee? It's kinda far."

"Of course!" Yang grins.

We quickly make our way to the school garage, then get one. A moment later, we're off. It takes us about half an hour to arrive at the... nest. It's an abandoned part of the city, practically a slums. There's no wonder the Grimm moved in, even I can almost feel the sadness hanging around this place.

"Geez, there's probably a ton here. Get your weapon ready, sis." Yang says, getting off the bike and readying her gauntlets. I reach into my inventory, pulling out my Scythe. Luckily, my strength is high enough for me to wield it without any problems now, so I don't have to burn aura boosting begin exploring, occasionally moving towards the damaged structures, but generally staying in the safer areas. We're not powerful enough to just rush into a full pack, not yet. Eventually we come across a small subpack of 3 beowulfs. Luckily, we spot them a good 20 meters or so away. I release the scythe with my right hand, pointing, then call forth a Flame Bolt. It flies at them, smashing into the one in the lead, which barely fails to get out of the way. It has the exact same stats as the Beowulf from the forest, according the quick observe I use, so the 10 damage from my fireball is pretty hefty. The 84 Aura used, on the other hand, hurts me a bit more.

The Beowulfs close in quickly, and Yang runs forward to meet them, smashing into them like a meteor. A single hit is enough to smash one of them down before she spins and uses a Power Attack to hit the other, which practically explodes from the blow. I rush forward as well, using my scythe to attack the last one that I already injured, taking it out.

"Wow, you're really strong." I say admiringly. Yang grins at me.

"I guess that's what the difference in experience actually is." She says cheerfully, "Not just a higher level, but better skills." As she finishes speaking, we get a notification from my Semblance. 225 XP for me. Seems kinda low for beowulfs.

"Hm. I only got 112 XP." Yang frowns.

"I got 225." I point out." I agree, frowning. "Maybe we're just too high of a level?"

Yang sighs. "Probably."

We quickly move to gather the loot, a couple small stacks of Lien, then stop to stare at the small red crystal innocently sitting in where one of the beowulfs had melted into goop. "Is that a red Dust crystal?" I ask doubtfully, staring at it.

"It looks like it." Yang agrees. "Observe it, would ya?"

"Right." I nod, activating my Observe ability.

**Red Dust Crystal, .500 Grams. **

**Red Dust compacted into a crystalline form, Red Dust Crystals can be used to power abilities that use Red Dust.**

"Yeah, it's a dust crystal." I tell her. "Half a gram."

**Your well placed caution has resulted in another Wisdom point!**

... Well that was convenient. I shrug, grabbing the crystal, and channel a bit of aura through it. It uses up a milligram of the dust, but glows normally.

"And it seems to work fine." I nod, putting it into my inventory.

"Isn't that annoying?" Yang asks curiously. "Pulling it out of your inventory each time you need it?"

"Well, my pockets aren't much better." I point out.

"Right, so why not attack it to a bracelet or something?" She asks. "Like, when you use a skill, use the dust from a specific bit of it to drill a hole through it, put a string through the hole, then only use dust from the bottom of it? Admittedly, once you've used too much of the dust, the crystal will fall off, but until then, it'll be on a bracelet."

"Oh, that's a good idea! Do you have string?" I ask. She laughs sheepishly, shaking her head. "No, I don't."

"Darn it." I was actually kinda excited. Hold on. Hadn't Uncle Qrow mentioned people imbuing dust into their clothes? And I have the lesser imbuement skill... and it isn't like I can't fight even without any dust... and I have Yang with me... "Hey, I wanna try something." I tell her.

"What is it?" She asks immediately.

"Well, I've got a skill called Dust Imbuement." I explain, "And Uncle Qrow mentioned that people imbue dust into their clothes when we found out about skill books."

"Well try it out!" Yang says cheerfully, "We've got time. And even if it seems like it'll take too long, we can just stop and then get back to hunting Grimm, right?"

"Right." I nod, then grab the gem, and flip the mental switch that's the Lesser Imbuement skill. A new menu appears.

**Imbuement:**

**At your level, you may make the following items from the given materials.**

**Dust Laced Clothes: Clothes laced with dust, allowing Dust Abilities to be accessed more easily. This can also affect Armor.**

**Dust Laced Weapon: A weapon laced with dust, allowing it to add the effects of the dust to it's attacks. Dust is used up each time the weapon is activated.**

**Dust Laced Armor: Armor laced with dust in order to increase it's protective properties. This can also affect clothes.**

I hit Dust Laced Clothes, and a second menu appears, asking what color Dust I'd like to use. All the colors are there, but all but the Red and Any are grayed out. I tap the Red one, and it switches to a third menu.

**Red Dust Laced Clothes:**

**Fire Affinity: Requires 1 gram of Dust. While wearing this clothing, you gain a Lesser Fire Affinity (False). This imbuement will last for 3 days.**

There's that fire affinity thing again. I really need to get around to finding out what it does, but I don't have enough Dust. I hit the back button, and hit Any this time.

**Generic Dust Laced Clothes:**

**Storage: Requires .05 Grams of Dust. Allows you to store Dust in this article of clothing. This effect is similar to creating a Dust Crystal with the Dust Refining skill.**

Sounds good! I tap the yes button, then feel my hands moving almost instinctively to my sleeves. I can feel how my Aura fluctuates and feeds the dust into my clothing, and about a minute later, I'm freed from the... trance? It's not really a trance, it's more similar to when I first made a flame bolt. A river of knowledge, sweeping me away, and all I can do is go with it, because otherwise I'll drown in it, but when it's over, I _know_ what I did, and I can do it again, even without the menu, because I've done it, and it feels like I've done it a thousand times, without resting, even if I only did it once, and it's terrifying, but awesome, because it's just so much power and knowledge, and it's so absolute and-

"Did it work?" Yang asks curiously. I glance up, and her face immediately turns worried. "Are you okay? You look..."

"I'm fine." I say after a moment. "It's just... when I first use a skill, I... I experience learning it, all at once? Does that make sense?"

After a moment she nods. "Yeah, I guess it does. But are you okay? Do you want to call this off? I can take on most of 'em myself." She flashes me a cocky smile, but I can see the worry beneath it.

"I'm fine," I insist. "And besides, I just made this shirt, and I am going to use it!" I tap the remainder of the dust crystal against the shirt, activating the shirt with my Aura, and absorbing the crystal into it. A small .451g appears in red lettering beneath my status bars. I grin. Looks like I have a counter as to how many shots I have left. Then I quickly click through the set of notifications that appeared. Got XP for Dust efficiency, okay, got XP for and leveled up Armorcrafting, okay, reasonable, I guess, got XP for Lesser Imbuement, expected, okay. "Let's go." I tell Yang. She nods, and we start our hunt.

It's rather boring, really. Despite killing almost 30 of them, we don't even level up any of our skills, although flame bolt's pretty close.

The loot makes me feel a lot better though. I find a couple more half gram Dust Crystals, a brown Earth one and a blue water one, as well as a decent amount of Lien, some more beowulf teeth, and, the weirdest of all, a brown book. I observe it immediately.

**Eternal Soul Skill Book**

**A brown hardcover book. This teaches you the Eternal Soul skill, which allows you to restore your Aura more quickly. 150 Lien.**

So that was suspiciously convenient. Yang and I decide not to do anything with it, and just show it to Uncle Qrow. I pull up the quest window, turning in the quest, and leveling Leadership. So that's awesome.

* * *

"I hope it was beneficial?" Uncle Qrow asks as we meet up at the mall.

"They're too weak." I pout, "We weren't getting much XP."

"It was pretty fun though!" Yang adds, "I punched one of them into the second, and then they both exploded!"

"Oh yeah, that was pretty funny." I snicker, "Oh, but Uncle Qrow, I found this book!"

"And when she says found, she means that one of the beowulfs dropped it as loot." Yang adds.

"That's... extremely odd." Uncle Qrow mutters, taking the book and flipping through it. He pulls out his scroll, quickly searches for something, finds it, then compares it to the book. "Hm. It's the exact same text, word for word. This is rather... interesting." He grimaces, looking up. "Are you sure it was created when the beowulf was destroyed?"

I nod. "Uh huh. It turned back into that shadowstuff, and then it fused together into the book. You know, like it always does when it drops loot."

"I see" He says thoughtfully. "Well, you may as well learn the skill." He hands it to me, and this time when the menu pops up, I hit yes.

Eternal Soul seems to work exactly like all of the other passive boost skills, except affecting my AP regeneration rate instead. After telling him that, he nods, then announces that we should get the shopping out of the way. As we walk towards the first store, he talks to us about school and classes, and tells us some stories about some of his more interesting hunts. Yang tells him about some of the things that her friends got up to over the break, or some of the sillier things that they did already. I just walk quietly, not really having much to say until Uncle Qrow suddenly calls my name.

"Ruby, why are your sleeves glowing red?" He asks, frowning at them.

"Oh, I used my Lesser Imbuement skill to make my blouse into a into a Dust Storage shirt! It makes throwing fire around a lot easier!" I say proudly.

"That was extremely dangerous." Uncle Crow frowns. "But I suppose your Semblance might compensate for that. Well, in that case, good job."

"Thanks." I say cheerfully, before I catch a flash of silver hair. "Oh, hey, it's Sterling! I wonder what he's doing here?"

"Shopping?" Yang offers, "We're at a store."

"Well, yeah, but I wonder what he's shopping for." I reply.

"Let's ask him!" Yang decides.

"What? We can't-" I begin, but she's already walking towards him. "Yang!" I let out a cry, running after her. Uncle Qrow just chuckles at us.

"Hi!" She's already speaking to him when I arrive. "You're Sterling right? I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister."

"Ah, hi?" He sounds kinda confused, then looks relieved when he notices me. "Oh, hey there, Ruby and did you get a Dust storage shirt?" His voice switches to excitement, which it should, because my blouse is awesome.

"Yup!" I grin at him. "Isn't it awesome?"

"So you decided to drop the idea of a scythe?" He asks. "I mean, if you're focusing on dust manipulation, your shirt counts as the weapon."

"Heck no!" I declare, "My sniper-scythe will also come into existence, and be awesome!"

"But... why bother?" He asks, sounding confused. "I mean, in that case, you're learning how to use a gun, a scythe, and your aura. And since Aura can be used at literally any range without any problems, you're basically learning two completely unrelated ranged skills and two completely unrelated melee skills. You're going to be have a lot of trouble finding enough time to train in all of them, won't you?"

"... Yeah, well... Scythes are awesome." I mutter.

"And really impractical, so you'd actually have to spend even more time on that than if you were learning to use like, a sledgehammer or something." He adds helpfully.

"The boy- Sterling, was it?" Uncle Qrow glances at him, and he nods eagerly.

"Yessir." He says, stumbling over his words a bit. Serves him right, for point out the flaws in... my... gr...

"Sterling here has a point, Ruby. Most people who learn how to use their Aura dedicate most of their effort to just using Aura based skills. They might pick up some non-aura based abilities, but most of them, such as Professor Goodwitch, prefer the usage of the Aura almost exclusively."

"But my semblance-" I protest. He cuts me off.

"Allows you to learn faster, yes. However, your time is still limited, and since I'm assuming that you would prefer to actually have free time, any moment spent working on one of your three combat styles is lost from the others. And since focusing on Aura manipulation actually involves a large number of different skills..." I let out a put out sigh, and he ruffles my hair. "You can still create the weapon as a backup, for if you run out of aura, but I would suggest that you make it as simple and practical as possible."

"It was just supposed to be a Scythe with a built in high impact sniper rifle!" I whine, "It's fine!"

He chuckles. "Well if you want to learn, who are we to say no? Anyways, it was nice to meet you Mr. Sterling."

"Ah, you too." He manages to get out before we leave and make our way to the book store. We all split up, Yang looking for any books she liked herself, me looking for anything that'd count as a skill book. I'm not sure what Uncle Qrow's doing.

The funny thing about skill books? They're actually pretty common. They're just not always useful. For example, dishwashing. I don't need that skill. I mean, it's a good skill to have if you're washing dishes, but _I_ don't need that skill as a _skill_, skill, you know? After a bit of poking through various skills that I'm never going to use, I manage to find a couple of old books with some Dust based skills that look useful. "Winter's Breath", "Aura Barrier", "Aura Bolt", "Summon Fire Elemental" and "Soulforge". According to my Observe skill, which leveled up twice during the search, Winter's Breath is an Area of Effect offensive, ice based ability that uses blue dust. Aura Barrier makes a full fledged shield out of my aura. Aura Bolt is like my Flame Bolt, except it doesn't bother changing the element, so it costs a lot less Aura and doesn't need to be catalyzed with Dust. Summon Fire Elemental gives you a Fire Affinity (What _is_ that?) and lets you make a contract with elementals and summon them at will. And then Soulforge is another Aura recovery skill, and the only reason I considered it is because this way I'll have two aura recovery skills and since they're easier to get up at lower levels, if I work on both, I'll be able to recover my aura REALLY quickly! I hope. Or they just don't stack, and that would be sad.

So once I've found the books, I need to go get Uncle Qrow, and ask him if he'll buy them, because I don't have enough cash to even buy one of them, and if I need that much cash, I'll need to start sneaking out and hunting Beowulfs. Though I suppose I could sell the dust crystals that I'm not using... but I'm getting off topic. I step out of the section I'm in so I can go find them, only to run into a girl, about Yang's age. She's about 5'4"ish, with black hair, pale skin, and gold eyes blinking down at me, and she's got a cute bow. And floating above her head are the worlds, "Blake Belladoona, White Fang Member, Level 6."

**A Quest Has Been Created:**

**The White Fang  
****The White Fang is a group of faunus terrorists, fighting for equal rights for their kind. Make them stop their violent actions, either by reforming them or destroying them.  
****Rewards: 50,000 XP, Increased closeness with the government, increased closeness with the Faunus community (possible).  
****Failure Penalty: Death or imprisonment.**

**Meeting Blake Belladonna  
****Blake Belladonna is a member of the White Fang who's having second thoughts about the violent turn that it's taken. You don't know where your meeting will go, but it's bound to be eventful.  
****Rewards: ? XP, ?, Increased Closeness with Blake Belladonna  
****Failure Penalty: Decreased Closeness with Blake Belladonna**

... "Hi!" I say cheerfully as I lean over to pick up my books. "Sorry for bumping into you, I was looking for my uncle and my sister, and I wasn't watching where I was going. My name's Ruby, what's yours?"

"Blake." She says, helping me pick them up. "It's no problem. Uh, no offense, but isn't 'Chant of Fire' a bit of an odd man out among the others?"

"Huh?" I blink at her, then look down at the books. Then the titles. Four of them are these really obscure, thick textbooks. The Summon Elemental book is a really old religious text from some religion that believed that there were spirits that lived in everything. Which is, you know, probably true if you can use your aura to summon those spirits, so that's kinda cool, but it's also not exactly the kinda thing you'd expect to see among the other ones. "Oh, yeah, it's um... for... a... project?"

She laughs a bit. "It's fine if you don't want to tell me, I'm not going to judge you for your reading material."

"No, it's... okay, so I'm trying to become a huntress, right?" I say, "So I've got my aura, and then it unlocked my Semblance."

"Okay." She drawls, obviously not sure where this is going, and I'm not really sure why I'm telling her this, but she's obviously not a bad guy, and I have a quest that involves talking to her, and I don't know what else I'd talk about.

"So my semblance is a bit weird." I continue.

"Most are." She agrees, a slight smile on her face.

"Right, but it's not weird like, that's-unusually-fast or I-can-teleport, it's weird as in, that-shouldn't-be-a-semblance, you know?"

"I'll take your word for it." She decides, giving me faint smile.

"Among a couple other things, it lets me learn skills from certain books." I explain, "Not as in reading them and learning skills, because anyone can do that, and that's just studying, but, hold on, I'll show you, it's really cool, just let me buy the book first." I've got enough cash from Grimm hunting to buy this one at least, and summoning elementals seems like it'd be awesome. She follows, apparently curious enough to see where I'm going with this.

I buy the book quickly, pulling the money straight out of my Inventory. "Huntress in training, dear?" The shopkeeper asks, raising an eyebrow at my little trick.

"Yes, mam!" I say cheerfully.

She chuckles. "You kids are always so excited when you find your semblances. Would you like a receipt?" I nod, and she hands me one. I grab the book, turning back to Blake.

"So look! Here's the book, right? And now..." I hit the Learn Skill button, and it bursts into a brilliant golden dust that swirls around and into me, slamming a river of knowledge into my mind. Oddly, there's not as much to learn as there usually is, since the skill really just consists of knowing how to make a pact with the spirit. "Tada! And now I can make a pact with a spirit, and normally I'd need fire, but I've got some Red Dust, so I can use that instead..." I pull out a small piece of Red Dust Crystal from my shirt, then pause, glancing at the teller. "Wait, do you mind? This won't damage anything, but it's kinda... showy."

"No, I'd love to see this, hon." She say, giving me a smile, "We don't see huntress tricks very often." Pouting slightly at it being called a trick, I put the Red Dust Crystal on the floor, then pull out the Brown Dust Crystal. A bit of aura's all it takes to decompress it back into it's regular Dust form, and I quickly scatter it into a perfect circle, unlocking the Dust Shaper skill as I do. Then I kneel in front of it, and begin to chant.

"Aura. The might of my soul. I, Ruby Rose, call upon the ancient contract of ages past to summon thee. I beg that you heed my call. Come, Fire Elemental." The Dust crystal glows red, then explodes into the figure of a small girl, dressed in a red dress that looks like it's made of lizard scales or snake skin or something.

"Why did you call me?" She asks, but it's not out loud. Instead, the voice bounces inside my head.

"I'll begin in accordance with the ancient rituals." I say, "My name is Ruby Rose. You have heard my name, so please, tell me yours." She nods, and a moment later, my head begins to ache as memories, thoughts, and entire _existence_ forces it's way through. It's fire. A burning forest, a roaring inferno, a crackling hearth. All things burn, everything is fuel. And it hurts, because _I'm fuel, and I'm burning._ I can see it, the whole world is ablaze, and I'm kneeling there, burning, everything burning, and the girl steps onto my hand, and suddenly, the burning disappears, leaving only a soothing warmth.

"We are one as the ancient contract decrees." She says solemnly.

"Our souls are one." I reply. I feel her tugging at my aura, and let it flow free towards her.

"I am Salamander." She declares. Her aura wraps around mine, fire mingling with fuel, protecting but not burning.

"I am Ruby Rose." I declare in return.

"And until the soul meets it's end-" She begins.

"We will be one forever." I finish.

"Summon me often, okay?" She says, sounding almost anxious.

"Okay." I agree. She disappears in a flash of fire, and I collapse backwards, only to be caught by Blake. "I'm going to go to sleep now." I tell her.

"Okay." She mutters, still looking at where the summoning happened. She seems to realize what I said just before the darkness claims me, and glances down in panic. "Wait, what? No! I don't-"

I don't hear the rest, having fallen asleep.

* * *

_I prowl through the city. There are many mortals here. Many sources of meals. But the taste of despair, of suffering, of hatred, all of it begins to grow old. Boring. Stale. And as they do, I begin to experience new flavors. The painful sweetness of joy softens, especially in the transition from regret. The euphoria of being saved grows a flavor only enhanced by the terror from which it is born. My palette expands, and I find less from causing destruction and hatred, and more from preventing it. Is this why the humans help each other? Because they enjoy this taste? And do they hate to create a place for it to breed?_

_I cannot ask. They would know that I am not one of them. But I can explore. So I do. I find the darkest pits, and see who brings the light. I find the foulest depths, and see who clears the air. And I find it is never the same ones as the ones who first birthed it. And then my curiosity grows beyond my caution, and I begin to venture near the hunters, and the places they are trained._

_And it is there that I taste it. A taste that has not filled my mouth for thousands of years. Fire, in it's purest, most elemental form._

**You Had a Nightmare. You did not recover HP, SP, and AP today.**

"I think she's waking up." I hear Yang's voice from beside me. I yawn, stretching a bit as I sit up.

"Yang?" I mutter, slightly confused, "What happened?"

"We're hoping you could explain." Yang sounds kinda mad. And worried. But really mad. Which is probably increased by the worry.

"I learned a new skill." I explain sleepily, "But the contract was a bit more tiring than I thought it'd be." I blink the sleep out of my eyes, then stare. "What's going on? Why are you pointing your scythe at Blake?"

"They think I did something to you." Blake says nervously. "Do you mind telling them I didn't?"

"She didn't!" I exclaim immediately, "It was just because I did the summon elemental contract, and I didn't realize that it'd knock me unconscious, because I didn't think it'd be so tiring, because I don't sleep anymore, so I was like, 'tiring, that's not a thing that happens to me' but it totally is if my Aura and Stamina both hit zero, and I didn't expect that so don't hurt her okay?"

Uncle Qrow pauses, then points his scythe away. "So you were irresponsible, and Blake was simply being helpful?"

"I wasn't irresponsible!" I protest, then get distracted as I notice the message box floating there. "Oh, hey, I leveled! How did that happen? Wait, what's a codex?"

"Ruby, focus." Yang sighs.

"Oh, right. Wait, what are we talking about?" I stare up at her.

"Wow, she's more distractible than a squirrel on a sugar high." Blake mutters.

"She's not usually this bad." Yang complains. "Seriously, Ruby, calm down. And then explain exactly what happened, would you? All we managed to learn is that you made some girl out of Red Dust, and then she exploded."

"Right." I nod, feeling a wave of calm rush through me. "So I found a bunch of skill books, and then I bumped into Blake here. I dropped the books, and she helped me pick them up. As she did, she noticed that Chant of Fire was in there, and asked about it. I explained that my Semblance lets me learn things really quickly, and offered to demonstrate. She said yes. I bought the book, then used the skill, which is called Summon Elemental to summon Salamander."

"Who's Salamander?" Yang asks quickly.

"The fire elemental I summoned." I explain, "Anyways, I summoned her using Red Dust, because we were in a bookstore and fire would be bad, and I totally need to get more affinities so I can summon more types of elementals. Anyways, right, the point. Um, I summoned her, and we made a contract, and it basically drained all of my Aura and Stamina, but now I can summon her to help me in a fight whenever I need her."

"So the skill had consequences you were unaware of?" Uncle Qrow demands. I shake my head.

"No, the skill said that contracting an elemental would be tiring, but I don't get tired any more, so I didn't expect it to actually affect me." I argue.

"That's... actually a reasonable assumption to make." He decides. "I suppose you weren't being irresponsible then. Although from now on, try to avoid using new skills when one of us aren't there to make sure you're okay."

"Okay." I agree.

"So now that we know I'm innocent, can I go?" Blake asks, still a little bit nervous.

Uncle Qrow gives her a very friendly looking smile. "Not quite. You see, I was wondering what a member of the White Fang was planning here?"

* * *

AN:

Why yes, I did just stop there. Yay for cliffhangers!

Next: Yes, Ruby just leveled while she was asleep. As for how (because I'll probably forget to mention next chapter), Yang and she are still partied. Yang saw Ruby suddenly lose all of her SP and AP, panicked, rushed towards her, saw Blake holding an unconscious Ruby, got angry, and attacked. Blake, a bit held down by an unconscious Ruby and not willing to pull a weapon, got beaten up. Yang gained XP for beating a level 6, which was immediately split between her and Ruby. That gave Ruby and Yang each enough XP to level once.

Third: Ugh. NUMBERS. I'm trying to keep a consistent system running in the background, but since I had to design it myself, it's not exactly perfect, playtested, or in any way usable. But it does exist. Of course, then I found out that parts of it are friggin' broken. . So I had to rehaul a couple of equations. Thus: A few damage numbers from earlier on are no longer relevant/accurate. So if a number is lower than you'd expect, or does less than one of the previous chapters, and the character says it increased, it increased _in story._ I just need to go back and rewrite those numbers at some point. However, the equations follow the same "flow" of numbers, so it should work out. Hopefully.

Fourth: Character sheets! I'm just going to have a link to a google drive folder on my profile. Note: Each time I find a formula problem, I only update the most recent sheet. I'm too lazy to fix previous ones, especially since I'll feel guilty about not fixing the previous chapter as well, and ugh. Too much effort for something with pretty much no gain. So yeah, equations are occasionally going to change from sheet to sheet. Sorry. But in my defense, hey, at least I'm using equations? ^.^" Anyways, there's a little bit of hidden info on the sheets that wasn't revealed in-story, so... yeah. Just keep that in mind, I guess.

Final Note: Anyone willing to Beta? PM/Review if you are.


	4. Chapter 4: Philosophies and Elements

Chapter 4

Blake's eyes immediately widen, and she glances around quickly. Yang is already tense, and ready to fight. Most of the people in the shop, human and faunus alike, are on the verge of panic. Some of them are already fleeing. No one wants to be somewhere that a member of the White Fang is about to fight a hunter. But most importantly in her eyes, Uncle Qrow is still standing there, giving her a friendly smile. Even if you don't know who he is, having someone standing there and giving you a friendly smile right after they accuse you of being a terrorist is never a good sign.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She says smoothly, before her eyes narrow. "Did you just see I'm a faunus and accuse me-"

"Semblances are strange things, no?" He cuts her off. "It's amazing how odd they can get. One grants you the ability to learn things from books, another grants the ability to convert damage you take into strength. And some have to do with more... subtle things." Blake's hands clench and unclench, as if she's fighting to keep from reaching for her weapon, which I use Observe on, and wow that's so cool!

"You have a Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe?" I squee. "That's so awesome! I'm planning on making a Sniper-Scythe, but-"

"Sis, now is _not the time._" Yang interrupts me. I pout, but quiet down.

"I... see no reason not to cooperate with the authorities, in their investigation, and clear my name," Blake says. Her voice is calm, but her golden eyes are glancing around warily. "As a law abiding citizen, I of course have nothing to hide."

"Smart," Uncle Qrow says, nodding. "Just let me finish purchasing the books, and then we'll be on our way back to Signal Academy. Oh, but first. Ruby, use Observe on her, then tell me what you learn, would you?"

I nod, then Observe Blake.

"Strength: 10ish. Agility: 32 and a half. Vitality: 12. Intelligence: 11. Wisdom: 13. Luck: 5. Health: 115. Aura: 136. Stamina: 110. All the regeneration rates are about 1 and a half. And then there's a list of skills, which basically come down to good at stealth, has a shadow clone semblance, and best with her weapon in it's Katana form."

"Did you just analyze my abilities?" Blake looks really uncomfortable. "By looking at me?"

I nod. "Uh huh!"

"Okay." She sighs. "So now what?"

"Now we finish buying Ruby's books, and then take you back to the academy to have a proper conversation," he says casually. She nods cautiously. We buy the books, I absorb them, and we make our way to Uncle Qrow's car.

On our way back, I decide to talk to her for a bit. "So! My name's Ruby!"

"You mentioned that," she says, sounding a bit less nervous.

"Oh, right," I say sheepishly. "So um... where did you learn how to use your Aura?"

"My mentor taught me," she says cautiously, glancing at Uncle Qrow. "He's a former hunter."

"Oh?" Uncle Qrow asks, keeping his eyes on the road. "Would I know him?"

"I doubt it," Blake replies quickly.

"Are you sure?" Uncle Qrow asks, sounding a bit amused. "I've met quite a few hunters in my time." He also sounds a lot more relaxed, though I'm not sure why.

"Pretty sure," Blake says, her lips quirking into a slight smile. As we drive along, she pulls out a book. "You don't mind if I read, do you?"

"No, go ahead," Uncle Qrow replies.

"Oh, what book is that?" I ask, peering at the cover. "Is it good?"

"The Thief and the Butcher," she replies. "And I think so."

"What's it about?" I ask, now trying to read the synopsis on the back.

"There's a child who lives on the streets. He's very poor, so he can't afford any food. One day, he tries to steal from an old butcher, who catches him. Seeing that he's just poor and hungry, the butcher feeds him, and makes him his apprentice," she explains.

I smile at her. "I love books," I admit. "When I was little, Yang, my sister, would read me books all the time. Stories about heroes and monsters, villains who had to be defeated, tyrants that had to be overthrown. It was nice. It's what made me want to become a huntress, you know?"

"Your sister's pretty protective of you," she comments. I nod.

"Yeah, for a while, we were all we had. When mom died, dad kind of... shut down. And while Uncle Qrow did what he could, he had to worry about Hunter stuff, and paying the bills, so we only really had each other to rely on."

"So how did that make you want to become a hero?" she asks, giving me a curious look.

"I didn't want things like that to happen to anyone else," I say, shrugging. "And I decided that if I had to, I'd be the one to stop it."

"But you can't solve every problem," she murmurs. "The real world isn't just a fairy tale. Not every problem can be struck down, not every injustice can be solved by fighting the right villain."

"But that's why I'm going to Signal," I argue. "So that even if I can't solve any problem, I'll solve as many as I can. Even if I can't save the world, I'll at least save everyone I can see."

"That's very ambitious," she notes.

"Well, I have big ambitions," I say firmly. "And even if I fail, I'll have saved a hundred people on the way."

"And though I may fail at this impossible task, my attempt shall shine more brightly than the successes at any of a thousand lesser goals," she whispers.

"What's that from?" I ask.

She smiles, shaking her head. "Just something I heard someone say once."

* * *

It's been about 5 hours since we ran into Blake, and we're still not sure what's going on. I've spent the whole time working on Soulforge, Eternal Soul, and Meditation, which can apparently all be done at once. It also increased my Wisdom. A few moments later, Uncle Qrow appears. "Blake Belladonna has been released," he says, sounding perfectly neutral. "We can't prove that she's in the White Fang, and she doesn't have any sort of bounty on her. From what she let slip, she's still in training."

A moment later, a quest completed screen opens up.

**You have impressed Blake Belladonna.  
****3000 exp, increased closeness with Blake Belladonna, increased reputation.**

I tap accept, leveling as I do. Hm. I'm level 5 now, and have 10 points to spend. I can worry about them later though. "So what happens now?" I ask, cocking my head.

"You two go to bed, for one," he says dryly. "And Ruby, there's someone who wants to talk to you tomorrow."

"Okay," I say agreeably. Now that we've actually found out what's going on, Yang decides to go to sleep. I decide to distribute my stats, then work on my skills some more instead. 10 points into int. Well, that was fast. I spend the rest of the night working on my 3 aura skills, getting the new ones up to 5, and meditation up to 8.

The next morning, I head off to talk to Uncle Qrow and the person he wanted me to meet. The man doesn't look like a hunter, but his level 49 says otherwise. He's tall, with spiky green hair, a pair of shiny glasses, and a yellow tie. And a thermos in his hand.

"So!" he says cheerfully. "You're the girl who rediscovered the lost, and sometimes believed mythical art of summoning elementals?"

He walks over to me, only it's not walking as much as it is _zooming, _in the same way that he's not quite speaking but spilling words.

"Yes." I nod.

"I see. And I've already been informed of your semblance, so I assume you know my name?"

"Yup! Bartholomew Oobleck, Beacon History Teacher!" I say cheerfully. "I've always wanted to go to beacon, this is awesome!"

"Ah, yes, Beacon! Home to many great hunters and huntresses in training! I do hope you do well, and we see you there soon! As you gleaned from my title, I am the history teacher! Now, I was wondering if you'd be able to teach others how to summon elementals? Hypothetically speaking, for now."

"Well, you need a fire affinity," I say, ignoring the 'for now.'

"And what is a Fire Affinity?" he asks.

"I don't know," I admit. "Let me check."

**Fire Affinity, Level 2/3  
****Your soul is one with the flame. Creating and manipulating fire through your aura costs 50% less.**

"Um, it says, 'your soul is one with the flame,'" I explain, then draw on the knowledge granted by having the Summon Elemental skill. "And to get one, you need to meditate on the element for a while. You can create a fake fire affinity by imbuing red dust into your body, but that's not enough to summon an elemental, because they can tell, and they'll get mad at you for trying to trick them."

"I see." He mutters to himself, before continuing to question me. "And then once you have an affinity, what then?"

"You have to make a summoning circle. I did it with Brown Dust, but you can do it in chalk if you want. It has to be a perfect circle with a pentagon in it. After that, you have to recite the chant, here lemme write it down..." I pull out a paper and pencil from my inventory, and jot down the chant, "And then if the Spirit likes you, you can summon her!"

"I see." He nods, "Thank you, Ruby! Hm, you mentioned that you want to go to Beacon, correct?"

I nod. "Yes."

"Well, I can't promise anything, but I can offer you an apprenticeship for now if you'd like. We'll be exploring some of the lost civilizations, recovering knowledge, and recovering lost skills! We have a number of skills that we believe have the explanations written out, but cannot use for whatever reason. If you can learn the skills, and then explain how they work, why the amount of knowledge we could recover would be immense!"

"Wait, so as an apprentice, I get to learn all sorts of cool new skills, and in return, I just have to explain how they work? And I get to be an apprentice to an instructor at _Beacon_?" I ask, making sure, because this is awesome!

"Why yes!" He grins. "I'll have to speak with Professor Ozborn first, of course, but I see no reason for him to refuse."

"Ruby is a bit younger than most students at Beacon," Uncle Qrow says dryly. "And considering that her duties as your apprentice would likely include teaching those same students..."

"Wait, I have to teach a bunch of people I don't know, who are older than me?" I ask, my fear of new people- I mean, my finely honed paranoia acting up. "I thought I was just teaching them to Professor Oobleck! Or writing down instructions or something!"

"It's Doctor Oobleck!" he protests. "I didn't earn a PhD for fun, thank you very much! And of course you'd have to teach, what's the point of apprenticing to a teacher otherwise?"

"I guess that makes sense." I grumble, kicking the floor a bit. "Can I wait a bit before I need to start teaching people?" I ask, pouting up at him. "I'm not really... good with people."

"Nonsense!" he declares. "You'll need to start sometime, so we might as well start now! But don't worry, we'll begin the first few lessons with me there, and you mainly doing the instruction and helping out those who need help!"

"Isn't that the whole thing?" I ask, frowning thoughtfully.

"Why, what a preposterous question!" he says, not actually saying no. "Now to get everything arranged!"

"Before you do that, how about explaining how Ruby will both teach classes at Beacon and attend her own classes here?" Uncle Qrow interjects.

"And that is one of the things we will have to arrange," Dr. Oobleck decides. "So if I could bother you for a copy of Ruby's schedule?"

Uncle Qrow sighs, pulling out a piece of paper, and why did he already have my schedule written out?

"Why did you already have my schedule?" I demand.

"Because I like to know where you and Yang are supposed to be," Uncle Qrow replies immediately. "It makes it easier to keep tabs on you for your father."

... Okay, that's actually a good answer. I was afraid that he was plotting with Pro- sorry, Doctor Oobleck or something.

"Oh," I say, somewhat sheepishly.

"Now, I will speak to you again tomorrow. Before I go however, would you mind demonstrating your summoning technique for me?"

"The contract making, or just summoning?" I ask immediately. "Because I don't have the affinity for any of the other elements."

"Seeing both would, of course, be most beneficial, but if you can't do the contract, the summoning will suffice," he decides.

I nod, flipping the mental switch to call forth Salamander. She manifests in a flash of fire, and I almost gasp at the immense amounts of aura that she drains. It costs me 30 just to summon her, 50 to maintain her for a single minute, and another 50 to make her manifest.

"It's a lot of energy," I explain to Uncle Qrow when he looks at me in concern. "I'm losing 97 each minute." He frowns.

"Can't you use Dust to reduce the cost?" he asks.

I shake my head. "No, she's here because of a contract. I'm not converting my aura into a different element, I'm just... feeding it to her? Something like that."

"Amazing..." Doctor Oobleck says, staring at her. "Truly amazing! This is an art lost for centuries, millennia even, and now, to see it reborn! Truly amazing! Thank you, dear girl!" He nods at me in thanks, then zooms out the door. I cut off the feed to Salamander and unsummon her before she can feed into my aura pool too much.

"How much mana do you have?" Uncle Qrow asks, frowning.

"242," I reply. "So I can only hold her for about 2 minutes when she's manifested. When she's not, I can hold her for about 5, but then she can't do anything unless I'm actively directing her to."

"I see. Do you think it'll get easier with practice?" he asks.

I shrug. "My aura isn't deep enough to summon her for long enough to get much practice," I point out. "But hopefully."

"We'll need to increase both your pool and aura restoration rate," he decides. "In the mean time though, I suggest you work on some of your other skills for now. Or actually, don't. Take a break, it's the weekend."

"Oh, but... what should I do?" I ask. "Yang's going out with her friend Moss, and there's not much to do."

"Have fun. Take a walk, look around, read a book, play some games, you know, the usual things kids do when they have nothing to do," he suggests. "It's still early, so you don't have any homework, and your Semblance makes conditioning less important for you than for most other students. Oh, and Ruby? Don't tell anyone that you can see titles. Admit to names and levels, and the rest of what you can do, but don't admit that you can see titles, understand?" I nod, despite not knowing exactly why he wants to hide that particular bit, then head back to the dorms.

... Where I have nothing to do! I eventually decide to just work on some skills. My Aura regeneration is about 8 now, so I can create and maintain a light, and still regain more aura than I lose every minute, so I decide to do that. And then because that's boring, I decide to sink into a meditation/soulforge/eternal soul trance. At least while I'm doing that, I'm not being bored.

After a while of that, not sure how much, but enough to level all the skills a few times, I hear a knocking on the door. "Hey, Ruby? You there?" I open my eyes, pulling myself out of the trance. "It's Sterling."

I wander over to the door, pulling it open. "Hey," I say cautiously.

"Hey." He nods. "I was wondering if you were free? I'm working on my weapon right now, Rampage, and I was hoping you could check some of my equations for me? I'd be willing to help you with any homework you have as well, so I'm not just mooching off you, I swear." He tacks on the last bit almost as an afterthought, as if realizing something.

"Oh, sure, come in," I say cheerfully, waving at the room. I pull out my homework from my inventory, then hand him my history homework. "Check this, would you? And send me the design you need me to check over." He pulls out his scroll, sending me the document, then begins looking over my homework.

"Can't you just check this against the textbook?" he asks absently as he reads it, "I was expecting you to need help with physics or something."

"Ugh, I had to read it once, I'm not going to read it again just to look for individual word definitions!" I whine. "It's written really boringly! I did that by reading an actually _interesting_ version of the history, I just want to make sure that the teacher won't mark it wrong!"

"... I suppose it's the same history either way." He shrugs. "And yeah, there don't seem to be any mistakes so far." We spend about half an hour looking over all of each other's homework, then spend the rest of the time debating the merits of pistols vs shotguns as close range weapons. I insist that shotguns are the way to go, because they have spread, and while that's bad at longer ranges, at short ones when you can get all the bullets to hit the same person, you can turn them into swiss cheese, especially with the proper dust rounds. He tries to argue that pistols are better because they can also be used at mid-ranges without too much extra trouble, and they're much less wasteful because half the bullets aren't dumped into empty air.

I point out that dust doesn't cost _that_ much, and he argues that if you're stuck away from town, it doesn't matter how much dust costs, because you don't have anyone to buy it from anyway. It somehow manages to end with us in the practice arena, and me demonstrating my various techniques and explaining how they (and most of my semblance) work.

"You need a faster recharge time," he says immediately after hearing my explanations. "Like, a lot faster. As it is, it takes, what, a minute to recover from any attack you make? One minute if it's the Flame Bolt, due to your fire affinity and some dust? A fight is over by then, and a single fire bolt isn't useful in the type of fight that _does_ last that long. Plus incoming attacks are going to be hitting your Aura as well."

"I know!" I whine. "But there's only so much I can do! Skills take a really long time to level up, especially since for most of them I have to rest and recover!"

He hums thoughtfully. "Does it take longer to recover them than you need to sleep to get the refresh bonus?"

"What?" I blink at him in confusion.

"The refresh bonus from sleeping. Or do you not have one?"

"You mean the Well Rested condition?" I ask cautiously.

"Maybe?" He shrugs. "I mean like, in most games if you rest for an hour, all your bars refill back to maximum. So how long do you have to sleep?"

"I don't know. I just don't sleep any more. I don't really need it," I explain.

"Well why not try it?" he asks reasonably. "Sleep for an hour. If everything is restored and you have the well rested condition, cut it half to half an hour. And keep doing that until you find the minimum amount of time you need. If it's less than the time you need to restore normally, then just start taking naps."

"I only need about 43 minutes to restore my aura now though," I point out. "So I really just need a bigger aura more than anything."

"And that happens fastest by spending points in Int?" he confirms. I nod.

"I think points in int also increase how quickly I learn skills," I add. "Either that, or higher levels do, because it was taking really long to level up my meditation and stuff, and then I leveled up a couple times, and suddenly, they started taking a lot less time."

"That would make sense," he mused. "I mean, intelligence is basically how well you can learn stuff, right?" I shrug at him.

"I don't exactly have a manual," I point out.

He chuckles. "True... hey, unrelated, but you said it only takes you 10 mana to keep the boost speed or boost strength active, right? Why not train one of those while you go to classes or whatever? You'll only be losing a little bit of mana per minute, and if you switch between a few minutes of on and few minutes off, it should work out. Plus they're pretty subtle, so no one will notice, and I hear if you exercise your Aura, it gets stronger, like a muscle."

"I'm not sure about that last bit," I admit, "but that seems like a good way to increase those ones! Thanks for the idea!"

"No problem." He nods. "I should get to bed soon though. You might not need sleep, but the rest of us mortals do." He leaves, waving at me as he does.

I chuckle, activating my boost speed skill as I do.

After activating it, I decide it's a good time to test his question, and go to sleep.

_There are hundreds of these humans in this city. Hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds. And endless horde, and their emotions fly everywhere, tainting the air with chaos, a horrifying mixture of good and bad, of sweet and bitter, and euphoric and depressed._

_I ignore them all, searching only for the taste of the soul that burns, hunting for a pattern. It spends too much time in that school of hunters, I cannot reach it there. It comes out only for short periods, and is always guarded by others of it's kind. I hunt it. I try to catch it alone, unaware, but it never is! It never stops, never sleeps, never shows weakness. It injures itself, but the injuries do not remain._

_It is like me. Like us. Is it a sibling to us? I do not know. But it's emotions... they taste different. They are covered, hidden away beneath a layer of nothingness, a void that nothing can pass through. There is no shadow to carry it, no sun to speed it on it's way. But there is no moon to guard it, no Dust to give it thorns, to give it bite, to fend us off. And yet it has Aura! It acts upon the world in a way we cannot, and it pretends to exist, and casts its shadows upon the world._

_I must speak to it alone. I must ask it why it tastes of flame, when all who once did are gone. I must ask it why it can pretend at a soul when we cannot. I must ask it if it knows where our Master has gone._

**You had a Nightmare. You did not Recover HP, SP, and AP today.**

* * *

The whole next couple of weeks pass without anything really happening. I train my aura skills up a lot, including the lesser used ones like Observation (Which got really sarcastic at some point, it keeps asking me why I'm looking at tables), especially if their mana cost is low enough that I can effectively use them at will, such as Strengthen, Speed Boost, and Light. And then conditioning class begins to include sparring practice.

"Ruby Rose!" the teacher calls out on the first day. "Steele Hearthel! You two are up!" We both make our way down to the practice arena, waiting patiently as she aligns the detectors to our auras. I take the chance to both Observe and just observe my opponent. Steele is only level 1, like the rest of the class, though he's most of the way to his second level. I get a bit of a shock when I see his stats. All of them are still under ten. Admittedly, so are most of mine, but my Intelligence is 22, and my wisdom's 12, so that's not exactly the same situation. "Ready?" the teacher asks us. We both nod, Steele pulling out the first version of his fire spear, Ember. I just shake my hands a bit, making sure my hands are clear of my sleeves, and ready the mental switch for the various offensive aura skills I know, while turning off the Light. Having all 8 of my regeneration free is probably a good idea, since it's already such a small amount to begin with. "Then begin!"

Steele rushes forward immediately, trying to close in on me. I activate Sprint, shooting myself backward as I send the first flame bolt at him. He dodges, and I pout. I'm running kinda low on Red Dust, so every miss is really annoying. I decide to try out an Aura bolt instead. It takes twice the amount of energy as Flame Bolt (especially now that I have a Fire Affinity), but since it's just using raw aura as blunt force trauma, it doesn't use up any Dust. He dodges it too, closing in more. I activate sprint to launch myself towards him, throwing him off, and smash an Aura Bolt straight into his chest before sprinting away again. Even with only 86 SP max, Sprint is a relatively easy technique, only costing 5 SP per activation. In the meantime, he stumbles from the 14 damage my Aura Bolt delivers. 13 of it hits his Aura, and since his max is only about 60, and I only need to get him down to 15, that means I just knocked him 1/3 "Dead." He backs off a bit, switching to a more defensive posture, ready to throw himself out of the way of my next ranged attack, or counterattack me if I get too close. I'm not willing to get too close.

I lob a couple more Aura Bolts at him, hoping one of them will connect. Weirdly, they both do. I blink in surprise, not really having expected that. Judging from how he dodged my first couple attacks, I thought he was faster. Maybe he'd just gotten lucky? Or was there an actual difference when you were higher leveled, even if it was just five levels? Or maybe 5 levels wasn't a "just" thing. After all, most 3rd years were around level 5, and it was generally acknowledged that there wasn't really a point in picking a fight with someone a year older than you, because you learned a _lot_ in a year.

"Victory to Ruby Rose," the teacher announces. I feel kinda unsettled as I sit back down, absently accepting the 3 exp I get. The next few battles are much more evenly matched, which makes sense, because everyone involved is level 1. They smash into each other like undignified comets, neither of them using ranged weapons or much strategy. Although to be fair, my strategy wasn't exactly sophisticated either, it was basically just keep-away and throw bolts of Aura at them.

Sterling gets up on the battlefield next, and proceeds to hold his own for a little while before his opponent smacks him with her mace, and sends him flying into the far wall. I glance up at the screen, then wince. He was already on the edge before that hit, and it knocked his aura straight down to 0,with the leftover damage going through to hit him. Hard. Which seemed to be his opponent's style, really. Each her blows were very hard, but rather inaccurate. Sterling, on the other hand, was fighting skirmisher style, skipping in, delivering some light blows, then retreating. He'd managed to get her down to about 70% of her aura before her first hit caught him on the arm, taking out a full half his aura, then down to half or so before her second glanced off him, knocking him to about a third. Then her last one caught him straight on, and probably tore through the remainder. I decided that if I was ever stuck fighting her, I'd stay away and flood her with Flame Bolts. Or I'd summon Salamander and have her do whatever it is she does. I haven't actually gotten a chance to see Salamander in a fight yet.

Finally, all but one person is done, and the teacher asks for volunteers to fight again. After no one does, she picks me, noting that despite burning some of my aura attacking, I still have a higher percent of it left than most of the other students. I Observe my opponent, and notice that her stats are a lot like my previous opponent's. Which makes me feel kinda guilty, like I'm picking on him or something, and oh no, am I turning into a bully? I don't want to be a bully!

"Begin!" the teacher announces. I immediately raise my hand, sending an Aura bolt at her. She dodges, leveling her spear and charging straight on. I toss a pair of aura bolts to intercept. She takes one straight on, flinching, and losing about a third of her Aura, but not getting thrown off too much. I'm about to throw another when when she uses her Aura to Speed Boost towards me. I counter with a Sprint, launching myself backwards, then Earthen Grasp her. The loss of 78 AP brings me down by about a third of my total, but the grabbing earth also immobilizes her for long enough for my next Aura Bolt to smash into her and take out another third of her Aura. I pause, glancing at the teacher. She nods, then calls the match. "Victory Ruby Rose. While Ashley still has more than the designated amount of Aura left, she is unlikely to have been able to dodge the next attack, which could have reduced her Aura to dangerous levels."

"That's an impressive technique," Sterling says as I sit down next to him. "Took out a lot more of your Aura than the other two you used though." I nod as I mentally flip the switches to turn a light, my speed boost, and my strengthen back on.

"Aura Bolt uses raw Aura, so it doesn't need to be shifted across elements," I explain. "And therefore there's no loss to type-changing it. Fire Bolt, I was catalyzing with Red Dust. When I thought I wasn't going to be hitting with it, I decided to just conserve my Red Dust. I need to go shopping for more soon," I explained. "But Earthen Grasp uses, well, the Earth Element, and I used up all of my Brown Dust when I made my contract with Salamander."

"Who?" He sounds kind of confused.

"Salamander! She's a fire elemental," I explain. "I can summon her to help me during a fight."

"So why didn't you?" he asks curiously.

"She takes a lot of Aura." I chuckle sheepishly. "A LOT. Like, three times a flame bolt just to appear, and then five times that over the course of each minute. And then I have to use even more Aura to power any abilities she uses."

"Huh." He frowns thoughtfully. "Then why bother?"

"Because she has a lot of control over fire. So if I can get enough aura, or if I get good enough at summoning her, I have her do things like light a small field on fire." I shrug. "Of course, I need to be able to keep her summoned the whole time."

"Now that you've all had your first taste of combat against each other, I hope you have a greater awareness of what you should be reaching for," the teacher announces when she notices everyone's settled down. "Starting next week, we'll be starting Grimm hunts in the forest as well. All students will form teams, and teams will be lead by me, personally. The exact rules behind the hunts will be explained in class tomorrow. For now though, you are dismissed."

We all head back to our dorms, that having been the last class of the day. "Hey, how was your day?" Yang asks cheerfully as I enter the room.

"Oh, it went pretty well!" I reply with a smile. "We had spars for the first time. I won both times. How about you? How did your day go?"

"Oh, pretty well." She grins tauntingly. "We learned a technique to increase the strength of our Aura. Sound familiar?"

"Wait, really?" I stare at her in surprise. "You guys learned meditation?"

"Well, no," she admits, frowning a bit. "It's more like an Aura _exercise_ than anything. You practice projecting it in a bunch of different ways, and shaping it and stuff."

"Yeah, meditation, Soulforge, and Eternal Soul are completely different," I agree. "Meditation's just smoothing your mind and aligning it with your soul. Soulforge is basically just creating more pathways between your body and your soul, and Eternal Soul is... really hard to explain, but it's basically telling the world, 'I'm here, and this is my soul, and it's going to glow very brightly, and you can't stop it!'"

"That's kinda interesting. How do you do all of them at once then?" she asks, cocking her head a bit.

"I dunno." I shrug at her. "I just do. Meditation actually makes it easier to do stuff, because it's easier to concentrate on what's going on in my soul instead of the real world. The other two just kinda... happen. I think it's just because of my Semblance that I can do this though. It seems like it'd be really hard to concentrate on so many things, but now I just flip the mental switch that's 'this skill is active' and then I'm using the skill."

"So it's like muscle memory?" Yang muses thoughtfully.

"Huh?" I blink at her.

"Muscle Memory. It's when you repeat an action so many times that it becomes instinctive," she explains. "That way you can do it even without actively thinking about it."

I nod at her. "Yeah, that makes sense! Actually, that's a really good description of all my skills."

She chuckles, and we both settle in to do homework.

* * *

The last month was utterly boring. My skills seem to be pushing against the cap imposed by my level, because while I managed to learn and level up Aura Practice, a lot, it's capping around 15. On a brighter note, I managed to get my summoning skill to level 9, by summoning and unsummoning Salamander repeatedly. After I do, I have to take a break and recover my mana, but during that time, I start meditating and stuff, so it seems to fly by. But other than that, the month passess uneventfully.

It's a Saturday when things change. Having noticed that most of my skills have pretty much stopped leveling, Yang decides to drag me out socializing. I spend the whole time hiding in a corner, and pretending I'm invisible. Speaking of which, is turning invisible a skill? I spend a couple minutes wondering about that before Uncle Qrow appears. He's been out on a Hunt for a while, so it's kinda surprising to see him.

"Uncle Qrow!" I yell, waving my hand to get his attention. He smiles, walking over to where Yang, her friends, Sterling, and I are all sitting.

"Hello kids," he says, nodding at us all.

"Hey! How've you been? Did you get to fight anything cool?" Yang asks eagerly. He shakes his head.

"There was just a flock of Nervermore," he explains. "The problem was just that there were so many of them, and they had a tendency to fly away from the Hunters who went after them. Nothing too major, but still an annoyance, and very time consuming."

"Oh." Yang gives a disappointed sound, and he chuckles a bit.

"We did manage to find some interesting things though. I'll tell the two of you about them sometime. Speaking of interesting, Ruby, Dr. Oobleck managed to get his proposition accepted."

"Huh?" I stare at him without realizing what he's talking about for a minute, then remember. "Oh! OH! That's awesome! When do we start? _How_ do we start?"

"You'll have to discuss it with Dr. Oobleck." He shrugs. "He has your scroll address, and he'll be contacting you soon."

"Got it!" I say cheerfully. He nods at us, then continues on his way.

"So... what was he talking about?" Sterling asks me casually.

"Oh, well my semblance lets me learn skills straight from books, so we're going to see how much that extends, and if I can bring back skills that have died out due to a lack of teachers!" I explain. He nods in understanding, and doesn't pry further, which is good.

A couple hours later, when we're all back in our dorms, I get a call from Dr. Oobleck. "Hello, Ruby," he says gravely. "I hope Mr. Branwen has already informed you that I've managed to secure your apprenticeship."

I nod eagerly. "He did! So when do we start?"

"Due to the conflicting schedules, we'll have to start this summer," he informs me. "I am sorry about that, but I was simply unable to accelerate things."

"Oh. Well, that's okay," I decide after a moment. "I'll just focus on trying to work on the skills I have right now."

"Yes, speaking of that, while we cannot begin a formal apprenticeship at the moment, we can at least get started. For example, would you be able to write up instructions for creating an Elemental Affinity?"

I nod. "Yeah, the concept's really simple, it's just that actually doing it's kinda hard."

"Have you tried it out yourself?" he asks after a moment. "Not to say that your knowledge is inaccurate, but it might be best to have your experience to draw upon as well as your theoretical knowledge. Perhaps try building an affinity to metal? That way you could have it serve as a guardian."

"Oh, that's a good idea!" I decide.

"Well, there's your first project!" he decides. "Be sure to record everything that happens over the course of the project, and of course, if anything happens outside of your expectations, feel free to contact me at any time! Oh, and I will be sending a few books containing skills your way in a few days, so try to learn those when you're done! Do you have any preferences?"

**A Quest Has Been Created:  
****Master of Elementals  
****Although the art of contracting with elementals has long been thought lost, you have begun to restore it to prominence. Contract with 5 different types of elementals.  
****Reward: 1,000 XP, Mastery of Elements Skill, Master of Elements Title  
****Failure Penalty: None**

Oh hey, quest! I accept the quest, then turn my attention back to Dr. Oobleck.

"Awesome! Um... more skills that increase how quickly my aura regenerates, or how much aura I have," I decide. "Aura is a really big limitation on most of my skills, and if I run out, I'm in trouble."

"I will do my utmost to find any skills that are described to work in that manner," he assures me.

I look around for a piece of metal to meditate on. A few seconds later, I facepalm, reach into my Inventory, and grab my Scythe. I sit cross-legged, then rest it on my legs, close my eyes, and activate the mental switch for the meditation skill. This time, rather than reaching into myself to match my mind to my soul, I reach out with my soul to match it to the steel scythe. Cold. Solid. Dependable. But yielding. Malleable. Adaptable. Willing to bend rather than break, but not so much that anything can reshape me. My soul slowly changes, taking on aspects of steel. My soul becomes steel. My essence becomes steel. All that I am turns to steel.

**Your meditation upon the nature of the world has granted you a point of Wisdom.**

My eyes open an hour later, and I lay the scythe aside. I haven't developed my new affinity, not yet, but I've made a start. A tiring start. I yawn, and curl up in my bed, too tired to even put my scythe away. My eyes drift closed, and I-

_\- hunt. It sleeps. The falsehood, the pretender. But I am a pretender as well. So I cannot call it that. And it does not simply pretend. It chances. It warps. It _taints._ None have that power in this age. None may rewrite the world. So why may it? I hunt. It sleeps. For once, it sleeps! But it tastes different now, that falsehood of a soul of an aura, it does not just taste of fire, of the burning flames that birth us in the shadows they leave behind, but of steel. Steel that cuts, that slices, that crushes. Steel that tears apart our beshadowed forms. Steel that chases away the taste of fear, steel that I dare not allow._

_What will happen if it turns to steel, when it already fire? Will it be tempered? Or will the fire be quenched? And what will occur? Will it cease to be? I cannot let it fade, not yet. I must speak to it alone. I must ask it why it tastes of flame, when all who once did are gone. I must ask why it begins to taste of steel. I must ask why it can pretend at a soul when we cannot. I must it if it knows where our Master has gone._

_But still it is guarded! It's sibling, the false dragon, the one who grows strong when other grow weak, that one remains by it's side! I cannot speak with it. It is not alone. And I must speak to it alone._

**You Had a Nightmare. You did not recover HP, SP, or AP today.**

"Ruby?" I wake up to see Yang's face.

"What is it?" I murmur.

"You were asleep." Yang sounds kind of worried. "I thought you didn't sleep any more?"

"I was trying to gain a metal affinity," I reply. "It's tiring, and you have to sleep to let it settle into your soul without damaging your mind."

"Wait, it's dangerous?" She sounds even more worried, and I can almost hear it shifting to anger, "Ruby, what-"

"It's not dangerous if I sleep!" I protest. "Which is what I was doing! Sleeping! I'm not an irresponsible little kid any more, Yang!" She pauses, then seems to calm down.

"Right. As long as you took the right precautions. Sorry, little sis, I was just worried about you."

"So hey, where were you?" I ask.

"Oh, I found another lead. Or I thought I did. Didn't turn out well." She grimaces.

"Oh," I say softly. "Well, I'm sure we'll find her soon!"

"Me too, sis." Her smile's a bit pained, but she hides it pretty well. "Hey, I'm going to be, alright? Don't do anything I wouldn't! Actually, don't do a few things that I would either, I'm older than you."

I giggle, before returning to sleep.

**You have slept peacefully. Your HP, SP, and AP have been restored.  
****You have gained the Well Rested Status Effect.**

* * *

AN: And the event with Blake is solved anticlimactically! No worries, she'll return later, but for right now, I'm just throwing the stones to begin the ripples. Beyond that, keep in mind that as far as Ruby knows, Blake's just a side quest in the main "White Fang!" quest.

Next stone: Oobleck's apprenticeship offer. Ruby is... not being stealthy with her power. She's very blatant about what it is and most of what it does. Subtlety is simply not her style. In canon, while the other characters reveal their powers slowly, over time, we find out about Ruby pretty much immediately, and she never even tries to hide it (unlike, say, Pyrra, who's pretty much a master of subtlety, and hiding her usage of her power. Outside of the food fight, anyway.) My point is, given how blatant she's being, it's catching people's attentions. Not always the people you'd expect, either. She brought back an ancient technique, which is awesome, but not exactly gamebreaking. The only reason this is different from a semblance is because it can potentially be taught to others. Thus Oobleck, a history teacher, is more interested than, say, Cinder, who would just note it as another thing the defenders might one day have on their side, and also, as something to avoid (the Title-sight, in particular, is VERY bad news for spies. Luckily the initial Hunter schools are generally considered not worth spying on, so no one's caring about Ruby... yet. Qrow's running damage control to try to prevent the news from getting any further, however.)

Now for notes:

The Fights: Yes, Ruby's was rather boring. Ruby is level 5, and is The Gamer. They're level _1, _and have to advance normally. It wasn't a fair fight by any means. Most of the fights are going to feel like that until they get to the forest and start fighting in non-controlled circumstances. Which means I'm not going to be writing them out. There's no tension, and no point.

This was a bit shorter than the others, but covered a longer time span. Honestly, that's because all of this is more set up for the actual plot, which kick-starts in a couple of years. After all, we're still in the tutorial.

Other Notes: UGH. I made meditation and such way too overpowered the first time I went through this. . What was I thinking, 10% per level? I kicked it down to 2% per level, which is significantly more reasonable and lets the later boosts such as Mana Battery keep a nice effect, but now it just feels kinda weak. Which is good, I guess, since she's still only level 5.

Also: There's a disturbing lack of humor here. :( It's saddening. Why is it that the stories I expect to end up dramatic end up silly, and the ones I expect to end up silly end up... not quite silly? I swear, I'm just going to remove the tags.

Finally: Thanks to Veil Hasoc for his assistance in Beta-ing.


	5. Chapter 5:Uniqueness Rule Does Not Apply

Chapter 5

"Aura. The might of my soul. I, Ruby Rose, call upon the ancient contract of ages past to summon thee. I beg that you heed my call. Come, Earth Elemental." The pile of dirt glows, then slowly begins forming into a more human shape.

"Why did you call me?" the girl made of earth and stone asks, her mental voice like clashing rocks.

"I'll begin in accordance with the ancient rituals," I say. "My name is Ruby Rose. You have heard my name, so please, tell me yours." She nods, and a moment later, my head begins to ache as memories, thoughts, and entire _existence_ forces it's way through. It's fire. A mountain stands firm, an avalanche smashes everything beneath it, a boulder is worn away by the waves into sand. I am static, I am stone. And it hurts, because _I'm just flesh, and the stone is unyielding._ I can see it, the whole world is nothing but dirt and rocks, and I'm kneeling there, covered in a gray layer of stone, a living statue, and the girl steps onto my hand, and suddenly, the nerveless lack of feeling disappears, leaving only a soothing warmth.

"We are one as the ancient contract decrees," she says solemnly.

"Our souls are one," I reply. I feel her tugging at my aura, and let it flow free towards her.

"I am Gnome," she declares. Her aura wraps around mine, earth mingling with life, nurturing, not crushing.

"I am Ruby Rose," I declare in return.

"And until the soul meets it's end-" she begins.

"We will be one forever," I finish.

"Summon me often, okay?" she says, her voice sounding as anxious as the other four that I've summoned so far.

"Of course," I whisper. She nods, and fades from existence.

"And this is how the contract is forged!" Dr. Oobleck announces to the classroom at large. "Very interesting isn't it? How much knowledge we've lost to time, to the Grimm, to the various forces that try and force us back! Now the historical implications of this technique are even greater! While forging the contract exhausted enough of her Aura that Ms. Rose here will be unable to demonstrate the various abilities of her elementals today, they-"

I take breath, then make my way out of the lecture hall.

"Geez, how many elements is that now, five?" Yang asks, letting me collapse onto her. "You okay sis?"

"Yeah, I'm- I'm fine," I get out. "Water would be nice."

"Here." She hands me a water bottle, and I quickly chug it down. "Not so fast! You'll get sick again." She grabs it, firmly directing it away. I glare at her, and she just gives me a concerned look in return.

I sigh, looking around. It's the start of summer break already, and not much happened last year. I spent most of my free time working on attaining the various Affinities I'd need to summon five different types of elementals, and while that was good for my wisdom (a point for each affinity as I gained it), it wasn't really good for much else (Except for Summon Elemental, which leveled itself whenever I gained a new affinity). I didn't even manage to get a weapon built, sheepishly offering my Dust Imbued shirt. And then Dr. Oobleck managed to get me to teach summoning during summer, and asked me to hold off on forging any of the contracts until then, so I could do them in front of the classes I'm supposed to be teaching. Well, now I mean. We looked through a lot of old tomes, and didn't actually find that many skill books. A lot of them were just skills that we have already, like Aura Bolt, skills I can't learn due to having insane stat requirements, like Armageddon (which needs 250 in one stat, and 200 in two others), or because they're just not skill books. I did manage to pick up three minor, useful skills though.

Aura Arrow acts like Aura Bolt, but weaker, with a lower mana cost, and most importantly, summoning multiple arrows at once. Each time I use it, instead of generating a single bolt, it generates 6, slightly weaker arrows. Well, 6 now that it's at level 15. Form of Lightning lets me turn into a lightning elemental, but costs 23 AP per minute. It also keeps me from using any ability that's not lightning based, but grants me a couple lightning abilities, and some rather extreme amounts of speed. And the last, Ritual Casting, allows me to spend an hour activating a technique, reducing the cost to 1/3 in return.

So my little ramble aside, we're at Beacon right now, teaching an optional class on how to create an elemental affinity. So far, I demonstrated contract making to each of the four classes, more to get them to take me seriously than anything, but that's it.

"You sure you want to do this sis?" Yang asks quietly. "I mean, if it's going to be this tiring for you each time..."

"I'm fine," I assure her. "I just need to sleep, and besides, it won't be anywhere near this bad from now on. It's just because I was contracting that it took this much effort."

"Uh huh. That was your last one though, right?" she verifies. I nod, then perk up slightly.

"Oh, that reminds me!" I pull open the quest menu, then turn in the Master of Elements quest. It gives me 1,000 XP, which isn't enough to level me, and then focus on the other two rewards.

Mastery of Elements immediately appears at Max level, and gives me the ability to ignore the Dust cost for any element that I have an affinity for. Which probably would have been more useful before I picked up a bunch of skills that don't use Dust.

The other one, the title, is much more interesting, mainly because I have no idea what a title _does_. Luckily, a helpful little tutorial shows up.

**Tutorial:  
****Titles are granted through accomplishing specific tasks. Titles can be equipped from the Titles Menu. You may only have 1 title equipped at a time. While a title is equipped, you gain certain bonuses.**

"So figure out what a title is, yet?" Yang asks as she helps me not fall over from exhaustion.

"One sec." I mutter, opening up the title menu.

**Equipped Title: The Gamer**

**Unlocked Titles:  
****Master of Elements: Reduces Aura cost of elemental skills for which you have an affinity by a further 10%. Reduces upkeep cost for summoned elementals by 10%. Have 5 Elemental Affinities.  
Signal Academy Student: +5 to Academic Skills. Be a student at Signal Academy.  
Newbie: No effect. Automatically granted.  
The Gamer: No effect. Have the Semblance, the Gamer.**

**Known Locked Titles:  
****Prodigy: +10 Intelligence. Join Beacon early.  
****Showstopper: +5 to accuracy based skills. Defeat all mooks during Torchwick's Dust Holdup.  
****Fallen Hero: +10 to Charismatic skills. Join Torchwick.  
****Burned Hero: +10 to Fire skills. Join Cinder Fall.  
****Traitor: +15 to espionage skills, -5 Luck. Switch factions.  
****Double Cross: +20 to Espionage skills, -10 Luck. Switch factions, then switch back.  
****Plot Breaker: +10 Luck. Kill Torchwick before the Tutorial ends.  
****Off the Rails: +10 Luck. Kill Cinder Fall before the Tutorial ends.  
****Archeologist: +5 Intelligence, +5 Wisdom. Recover 5 "Lost" skills.  
****Red Like Roses: +5 to all stats. ?.  
****Blood Knight: Do not take penalties for being below 33% HP, Inflict the Berserk status upon yourself at will. Win 10 fights with 50% or less HP at the end.  
****White Fang Member: +10 to Espionage skills. Join the White Fang.  
****Exterminator: +10 to Charismatic skills. Destroy a faction.  
****Apprentice: Gain skills 25% faster. Skills known by your teacher have no soft cap. Get a formal apprenticeship.  
****Living Mirror: Learn any skill at level 1 after seeing it in action. Unless you devote time to learning the skill, it reverts back to unknown in 24 hours. Learn 3 semblance skills.  
****Beowolf Slayer: +20% Damage to Beowolves. -20% Damage taken from Beowolves. Slay 50 Beowolf in a single day.  
****Mighty Warrior: +5 Strength, +5 Vitality. Deal over 100 damage with a melee attack.  
****Can't Touch This: +50 Dodge, -5 Vitality. Win 10 fights in a row without ever being damaged.  
****Herald of Shadows: Grimm Form, -100% Aura. Speak to the Ancient Creature of Grimm alone.  
****Herald of the Moon: +100% Aura. Slay the Ancient Creature of Grimm.  
****Master of None: +1 to all stats. Have more than 10 in all stats, and be level 10 or above.  
Retired Huntress: +5 to Intelligence, +5 to Wisdom. Retire from being a Huntress.  
Mook: -2 to all stats. Hides your name. Become someone's minion.**

"... Okay, so apparently, they're, you know, titles. That I can earn. And while they're equipped, I get bonuses. For example, you know your Blood Knight title? Apparently it means you 'do not take penalties for being below 33% HP, and can Inflict the Berserk status upon yourself at will.'" I explain.

"That's kinda cool," Yang says, cheering up. "And I already have that one, right?"

I nod at her. "Uh huh. You've got it equipped."

"Well that's good to know!" she says cheerfully as we arrive at the dorm we were provided. "Now c'mon, let's get you ready for bed."

"Right." I yawn, changing, then fall asleep.

_It sleeps. It is alone. This is my chance to speak with it. But now it resides in the nest of Hunters. Where every hunter is. Time runs short. If I do not approach it soon, the elements that change it shall grow too much, it shall become unstable. Perhaps the teeth will be of assistance? No. They do not aim. They do not know of me. And they would question. The humans always question. And they taste of fear and despair and hatred and rage and so much despair and I would not be able to help but _feast.

**You Had a Nightmare. You did not recover HP, SP, or AP today.**

So that's starting to get annoying. I make my way to the classroom, even though they don't really need me until they've mastered their affinities. Which took _me_ a quarter of a year each, and I have the Gamer Semblance to help me out. Guess that explains how the summon elemental technique got Lost though, it's a really big hassle to learn them.

Dr. Oobleck spends the period lecturing to the students, zooming around, then calls me up front. "Now, Ms. Rose here is going to demonstrate some of the things you can do with Elementals, and then we're going to discuss how they might have been used in constructing the Black Tower."

"... What's the Black Tower?" I ask.

"Would anyone like to try to answer this question?" Dr. Oobleck asks the class, zooming from one person to another. "Ah, yes, how about you, Mr. Stone? You haven't answered one recently!"

"Um... the black tower... is... uh... It's the tower in Southeast Mistral. It's filled with a bunch of Grimm, and we don't know how it was made."

"Very good!" Mr Oobleck says loudly, before zooming back to where I am.

**A Quest Has Been Created:  
****The Tower in the Wilds  
****In southeast Mistral, there stands an ancient tower. Explore it, and find the secrets that it hides.  
****Rewards: +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom, 10,000 EXP.  
****Failure Penalty: None**

I accept the quest, then close out of the menu as Dr. Oobleck continues speaking. "So, Ms. Rose, if you would care to demonstrate one of your elementals for us?"

I take a breath, then call up Roc, the lightning elemental. She resembles a bird-person, but with lightning running through her feathery hair, and sparks dancing across her skin. I don't manifest her, the energy cost being too high for that. Instead, I simply have her create lightning that dances around me, and flicker the lights on and off. I screw up a bit, and one of them blows out, making me yelp and lose control of her. She fades from existence quickly. A student starts snickering, and I glare at him. Okay, so I don't have perfect control. Oh well, that's still a lot cooler than anything you can do! Jerks. Oh, but a couple of the other kids smacked him for me! They're so nice and wait, are they calling me adorable? I am not adorable, I am destruction incarnate!

"As Ms. Rose so kindly demonstrated, even a single lightning elemental can have devastating effects, and controls even the electricity we use for day to day life..."

* * *

Summer ends, and the next school year begins. My time at Beacon "teaching" didn't amount to much, since none of the kids managed to get an affinity yet. Probably because most of them dropped out a few days after they found out how hard and exhausting it was, and how much Aura it took just to maintain an elemental for a few minutes. On the other hand, I totally got a couple points of Int out of it, as well as leveling up my Summon Elemental ability a few times. My second year at Signal begins with Sterling walking up to me.

"Hey, I heard from my brother you're teaching people how to summon elementals?" he asks hopefully.

I grin at him. "Yup! I'm a teacher now," I say proudly.

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to teach me?" he asks, chuckling awkwardly. "I kinda stole his copy of the book on making an affinity, and I've been trying to make a metal affinity, you know, so I can use my sword more easily, and I'd appreciate it if you could tell me how I'm doing, maybe?"

"No problem," I say cheerfully, kind of amused at being on the other end of the awkwardness for once. Anyway, his awkwardness aside, I observe him, looking to see if he's even gotten the first step of an affinity. The thing about affinities is that they come in three levels. The first, a Lesser Affinity, takes me about a month and a half of meditation for an hour, then rest for half an hour, 9 hours a day. It gives a 25% discount to skills of that element, but nothing else. The next level, a True affinity, takes the same amount of time, doubles the effect, and lets you start summoning elementals. No idea about the third level, I haven't had enough time to earn it yet. Of course, I didn't really try.

My Observe doesn't really tell me much, other than that he seems to be going for an agility and wisdom build. The other kids have been leveling up by sparring each other, and why aren't I doing that with Yang? I obviously get EXP for fighting the kids in my grade, they just don't give much. Yang, on the other hand, is level 9! And since I'll probably get EXP even if I lose... AGH! I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier! Oh! I wonder what'd happen if I sparred with Uncle Qrow? Well, other than getting beaten in half a second of course.

I grumble to myself about how I haven't been making the best use of my time until class, at which point I go up against another classmate of mine who uses a machine gun. The moment the teacher says begin, I immediately hit him with an Earthen Grasp. Now that I have an Earth affinity, Mastery of Elements, and the Master of Elements title, Earthen Grasp only costs me about 9 Aura. And since Earthen Grasp literally grabs someone and prevents them from moving in anyway, getting grabbed by it is basically just being an Aura Arrow away from losing. Which is why it throws me off when he breaks out of it and sprays bullets at me. I let out a yelp, tossing up an Aura Barrier which collapses almost immediately, then just spam Aura Arrows at him while I frantically dodge. Luckily I manage to take him out seconds before he manages to take me out.

"I need to work on my barrier," I decide.

"You need to avoid getting overconfident," the teacher corrects me. I nod. A 2 level difference is apparently a lot small than a 4 level one. "Victor Ruby Rose." I sit down, then immediately begin plotting on how to get my ven- I mean, on how to level myself up efficiently.

According to Uncle Qrow, the best way is to win fights. Which is why he suggests I join sparring club.

"I didn't know we had a sparring club!" I complain.

"We have a lot of clubs," he replies with a shrug. "You've just been spending most of your time working on your skills, your homework, or with your friends. That is by no means a bad thing, simply a reason why you failed to notice the clubs."

"Well, yeah, but I can earn EXP while sparring!" I protest.

"You can?" He stares at me in surprise. "Then why haven't you leveled? You win your fights all the time. Although you got rather arrogant this fight. I do suggest you pick up a few new tricks."

"I noticed," I grumble. "And it's because they're all levels 1, or 2, or 3. You get a lot less EXP for beating someone a lower level than you. I only got 75 for beating him, for example, and I need 1600."

"Definitely join the club then." He nods. "You'll get a chance to fight against higher year students as well. Level 5 is 3rd year students, you said?" I nod. "Very well. The club meets on fridays after school, in Practice Arena 4."

"Thanks Uncle Qrow," I say gratefully.

The rest of the week takes way too long to pass, but eventually it's Friday, and I'm at the club. I've spend most of the week getting the stupid Aura Barrier ability up a bit, but it's still not the best. It does have more HP than I do though, so it's better than nothing.

"Oh, hey, Ruby!" Yang looks surprised to see me here. Well good! I'm surprised to see her here!

"Yang! What are you doing here?" I ask.

"I like fighting?" she says, as if it should be completely obvious and now that I think about it, it really should.

"Oh. Right." I chuckle sheepishly. "So why didn't you tell me there was a sparring club?"

"You were always busy working on your skills and stuff," she say, sounding kind of confused. "Why, it's not like you get EXP out of it, right?"

"Yes," I say flatly. "Yes I do."

"Then why haven't you-"

"Because they're all level 3," I interrupt. "I don't get _much_ EXP."

"Uh... what are you guys talking about?" Yang's friend, Moss, asks, having wandered over.

"It has to do with her Semblance," Yang says smoothly. "So who's up?"

"Ruby Rose," he says, checking his clipboard. "Against a third year, Sapphire Fell."

"... That was terrible," Yang says flatly. He sighs.

"Yeah, that's what she said as well. I'm serious though. Ruby, you're up against Sapphire." I glance down at the arena, where a girl dressed in blue is waiting for me. Huh. I guess he _is_ being serious. I make my way down, taking the chance to Observe her. She's a speed type, with a high agility, and high enough levels in Spear Mastery to make her spear _hurt._ She also has a pretty decent rocket launcher built into it. And her Semblance, which is unlocked, lets her Flash Step. So basically, she hits very fast.

"Begin!" Moss calls out. Apparently he's running this. Good to know. Sapphire flash steps forwards, then begins rushing towards me. Weirdly, she's not quite as fast as you'd expect from an Agility of 34, instead getting most of her speed boost out of her Semblance. I drop an Aura Barrier straight into her path. She rams into it head first, shattering it, but also losing a significant amount of her own aura. In fact, she loses practically all of it. Worried, I observe her, only to find that her maximum Aura's only about 88. That's... not much. She must usually try to avoid attacks rather than taking them head on.

"You could say that was a Speed Run." Yang grins at me as I sit next to her.

"_You_ could say that," I growl. "Don't pin your bad puns on me."

She chuckles. "So how much EXP did you get, sis?"

"500," I inform her.

"Nice," she says cheerfully.

A few matches later, Yang gets up there. Her fighting style is completely different from mine. Where I stay back and avoid getting hit while bombarding them with attacks, Yang gets up close and personal. She doesn't avoid hits, she tanks then, her semblance turning it into a boost of strength to let her hit back harder. By the end of the fight, she's lost about half her aura, but her blonde hair is glowing white, her eyes are burning red, and her opponent is frantically trying to keep her from smacking him into a wall. He fails miserably, and a single punch knocks his aura down from 70% to 10%.

I get called up again. This time I lose, and it's completely my fault. It starts out like the others, and her level's 5 as well. But apparently she's been paying attention because she flash steps in short bursts, waiting for me to try something before suddenly not being there anymore. I get annoyed and try a Winter's Breath, but since I don't have an Ice affinity, that takes out more of my own Aura than she does. Eventually I get annoyed and summon Roc, then just try and electrocute everything nearby. About half a second later, I lose because I just drained myself to beneath 25% Aura. I still get 250 EXP out of it, though, so apparently fighting at all is good practice.

The fights end for the day, and we return to our dorms. "So, fun, huh?" Yang grins at me as we collapse onto our beds.

"Yeah, that was great!" I say cheerfully. "They had a bunch of different styles, and everyone I fought was a high level!"

"So you leveled?" she asks curiously. I shake my head.

"Nah, but at least I'm getting there," I say optimistically. She nods.

"Yeah, that's true," she murmurs.

I'm about to fall asleep when my scroll suddenly beeps with a message. I grab it, and open the message. I don't recognize the handle, but once I open the message, I realize who it is.

"This is Blake Belladonna. You might not remember me, but we had an... incident back last year in a book store. I believe your uncle accused me of being part of the White Fang. Would it be possible to talk?"

* * *

I end up meeting Blake in a small cafe in town. She glances up as I enter, her eyes flicking around. My own glance up at her name, level, and title. She's level 8 now, but her title's changed. It's Black The Beast, now. I wonder what that means?

"Your family not here with you today?" she asks casually.

"Nah. Yang's sleeping in, and Uncle Qrow's busy. He was only able to help me out as much as he could last year because I'd just unlocked my semblance," I explain.

"Makes sense," she murmurs. A waitress shows up to take our orders, and Blake asks for a hot chocolate. I do too, then ask for some cookies as well. Blake doesn't talk until after the food arrives, seemingly content just staring out the window. I take the opportunity to discretely open my menu, and glance through the list of titles. There's a few new ones in the Visible Locked list.

**Born of Lightning: +3 Agility, +3 Strength, +4 Int. Know 3 lightning skills.  
****Black the Beast: +5 Agility, +5 Wisdom. Leave the White Fang to become a Huntress.  
****Information Broker: +5 to Espionage skills, +5 to Charismatic skills. Speak to Junior.  
****Revolutionary: +2 to all stats. Take over a country.  
****FOR SCIENCE!: +15 to Intelligence, -5 to Wisdom. Imbue an Elemental with Dust.  
****Say Hello To My Little Friend: +15 to all gun skills. Imbue a weapon to summon an elemental wherever it hits.**

Well that was an interesting list of titles to try and unlock. I think the side effects of earning the title are usually more useful than the actual title. I mean, Revolutionary gives +2 to all stats, and requires _taking over a country?_ Not ruling one, but taking one over. That's just ridiculous!

The coffee and my cookies arrive, and I start nibbling. Suddenly, Blake speaks. "Hey, Ruby. You're... you're training to become a huntress, right? Because you want to make the world a better place?"

I nod. "Uh huh."

"So, what do you consider a better place?" she asks, her golden eyes meeting mine. "And why do you think that being a huntress will help you do it?"

"Because there's monsters at outside the cities, and if no one stops them, they'll just keep hurting people," I say simply. "And a better place... well if less people are getting hurt, then aren't things better?"

"I suppose that's true. But sometimes... sometimes some people get hurt so that a lot more won't be." She sighs. "Is that- Oh, I don't know why I'm asking you this, I don't really know you."

"Well, some villains need to be overthrown." I shrug. "As long as you don't hurt anyone innocent..." I trail off as I see her depressed look.

"If someone works for someone bad, are they guilty?" she mutters. "I don't think they are."

"Um... you know, I think we should call Yang, she knows about this stuff a lot better than I do," I say, panicking a bit. Blake glanced up, then chuckles lightly.

"No, I think I'll just have to find my own answers. Thanks for talking to me though." She pays for our food, waving off my offer to pay for my own, then leaves. I sigh, then figure that as long as I'm here, I might as well try and pick up a new skill. In light of that idea, I head to the book store.

There's a lot of books, but as per usual, very few of them are actually useful at the moment. I do manage to find one particularly good one, however.

**Instant Dungeon Create Skill Book  
****Teaches the Instant Dungeon Create skill. The Instant Dungeon Create skill allows the creation of an Dungeon, which will gather spirits to populate itself with various types of creatures, which will act completely identically to the real versions of those creatures. The greater your level in this skill, the more types of Instant Dungeons you can create. Combat inside an Instant Dungeon will not affect the outside world.**

The book it's from, "Dimension Lost" is only about 250 Lien. Unfortunately, that's also the rest of the Lien I have on me. On the bright side, hopefully whatever spawns in there will drop loot, and wow, it's been a while since I fought actual Grimm.

I make my way back to the dorm. "Yang?" I call out, looking around. Huh. She's not here. Weird. Eh, she's probably just getting breakfast or something. In the meantime, time to try out my new skill! I activate the mental switch for Instant Dungeon Create. It only has two choices for now, Empty, and Beowolves. After a moment of thought, I hit beowolves. A weird... ripple, almost, flows out from my body. Nothing changes though. I peer around in confusion, then head out of the room. Suddenly, I hear growling, I spin, a set of Aura Arrows already forming around me, and launch them at the level 5 Beowolf charging at me. It collapses, leaving some Lien. I continue exploring, taking out Beowolves as they appear. When I get outside, I nearly have a heart attack. There's at least 15 beowolves there, and all of them seem to notice me immediately. I summon Roc, then have her electrocute everything in sight. It uses up a pretty significant chunk of aura, but at the end of it, they're all down.

I exit the barrier, and find myself actually outside, having popped back into the real world right in front of a startled Sterling, who falls over backwards.

"You can teleport now?" he yelps. "Geez! Warn me next time!"

"Sorry!" I apologize sheepishly. "I was just testing out a new technique."

"Teleporting?" he asks dryly as he picks himself up.

"What? No. It lets me create a dimension full of beowolves to kill," I explain.

"... Why would you want that?" he asks, sounding completely confused. "I mean, if you want to fight a beowolf, just go into the forest, there's tons of them."

"Because if I get better at it, it'll create stronger things to kill!"

"... Again, why would you want that?" he still sounds confused. "If you need to fight something stronger, just go further afield."

"Because it's... more... reliable?" I said hesitantly. "And besides! I can make empty ones as well, so if I need to break into a building, I can use it to teleport! But, you know, slowly. At like, walking speed."

"I see," he drawls. "Well anyway, are you free? I'm planning on working on my affinity some more, and I'd like to know how close I am."

"Sure!" I agree cheerfully.

We practice for a while, then return to our dorms. "Hey, Ruby!" Yang calls out. "How was your trip?"

"Pretty nice," I say cheerfully. "I talked to Blake, and I'm pretty sure she quit the White Fang and she's becoming a huntress, so you might see her next year. Oh, and look at this awesome new skill I found! Hold on, let me just party with you first..." I party, then activate the skill.

"Okay, that was kinda weird." Yang frowns. "But I don't see anything different."

"Look out the window." I grin.

"... You covered the school in beowolves?" she asks.

"Well, technically I moved us to an alternate dimension filled with beowolves," I correct her. "But yeah! Isn't it great? And they're level 5, so they give decent EXP, and eventually I can make dungeons with stronger ones, so we can practice whenever we want!"

"Wait, is this where the Creatures of Grimm come from?" Yang asks curiously. "Like, originally?"

I shrug. "I don't think so? I mean these are gathered spirits that take on a form, so they're not real."

"Are the Grimm real?" Yang asks, raising an eyebrow. "Or that is, any more real than these Grimm?"

"I... don't know?" I chuckle awkwardly. "I'll ask Dr. Oobleck at some point."

"Well in the mean time, let's have some fun!" she decides. We throw ourselves into the fight, maiming our way through the beowolves. Slowly though, they start flooding us with sheer numbers, and our auras begin to run low. We quickly hole up in a room, using the door as a bottleneck.

"Ugh, there's so many!" I whine, switching to my Scythe, which still does more damage than my Aura Arrow.

"Yeah, this is kinda getting a bit boring," Yang admits, grabbing one of them and using it as a bludgeon to clear out some more.

"And our Auras are running low," I point out.

"That too." She sighs, blazing away with her Ember Celica. Suddenly, Beowolves stop spawning. We take the opportunity to catch our breath and to grab the barrels of loot that we didn't have time for.

"Do you think we cleared the dungeon?" Yang asks curiously.

I shrug. "I dunno. I'd summon Gnome to check, but I kinda need all my Aura regeneration working, you know, regenerate my aura."

And of course, that's when it appears.

The Beowolf is massive, and also level 10. It's name: Big Bad Beowolf. And unlike the other Beowulves thus far, who just had the title of Mook, this one's title is "Big Bad Beowolf." Which seems kinda redundant, but that's not really the issue right now. I immediately dump every single attack into it's face that I can, not even trying to conserve the slightest bit of energy. Yang, apparently agreeing, powers up her Burning Dragon Semblance immediately, and tosses herself at it.

Her first few blows smash into it's white bone-armored hide with little effect, doing little to damage. My Aura Arrows don't help much either, simply smashing into it's hide and then fading with only some faint ticks into it's health bar. It snarls, biting at Yang's arm, then trying to bite down. Luckily her aura prevents it from taking her arm off. I switch to my Sniper Rifle, and start pumping bullets into it's head. It doesn't help much.

And then Yang punches it's teeth out. Apparently it's damage dealt was enough to get her strength pretty high, so her own hits start doing a pretty significant amount of damage. Rather than wasting Aura on attacks that barely scratch it, I switch to harrying it with Earthen Grasp, keeping it from retaliating. Eventually, we manage to wear it down to about 50% health, at which point it seems to berserk. It smashes Yang away with one of it's paws, then tries to pounce and apparently bite her out of the air. She does this awesome air flip thing, then uses her Ember Celica to boost herself out the way and shoot it in the face. Deciding that enough is enough, I use my Dust Manipulation skill to start flowing streams of dust into it's mouth and eyes. Once there's enough for me to feel safe, I destabilize a Red crystal, toss it into the Beowolf's mouth, then shoot it with a Flame Bolt. It proceeds to explode, taking out the creature's head, and the rest of it's HP.

"Ruby," Yang says, her voice perfectly even.

"Yes?" I ask cautiously.

"You're the best sister a girl could ask for!" She grabs in a bone crushing hug.

"Agh! Yang! Get off! We need to get the loot!" I protest.

"Eh, it'll be there when I'm done," Yang says cheerfully.

"Yang!" I whine. She sighs, but lets me go. "Okay, okay. Let's get the loot."

The loot consists of a giant pile of Lien, three strange red bottles that my Observe skill labels as "Health Potions", a skill book with the skill, "Stoneskin", and a strange mask called "Howling Fangs."

"So what does that book do?" Yang asks curiously, poking at one of the bottles.

"It's called Stoneskin!" I say excitedly. "I can cover myself in armor made of stone! And since it's an earth skill, my Earth affinity drops the cost by a lot!"

"Sounds useful," Yangs says cheerfully. "So what are these bottles?"

"Oh, health potions," I say casually. "Drinking one heals you by 50 HP."

"Wait... isn't that basically your hit point maximum?" Yang asks doubtfully.

"I have 79, thank you very much!" I protest.

"Uh huh." Yang looks annoyingly amused.

"Whatever." I huff.

"So what about the mask?" she asks, nodding at it.

I Observe it. "Um, apparently it gives a bonus of 15 Armor. How does Armor work, anyway?"

**Tutorial:  
****Armor can be equipped to lower the amount of damage you take. Each point of Armor can stop a point damage each hit. However, armor must be equipped to that area. So a helmet cannot weaken a hit to the arm, for example. Armor can be constructed, fixed, or redesigned with the Armorcrafter skill.**

Hm. That reminds me, I _really_ need to get around to making a proper weapon. Running low on Aura makes it hard to attack and means that I effectively have less health.

"And looks like it just reduces damage taken. Anyway, it also has a couple other effects, looks like. +25% to damage dealt in melee, and +15% to Stamina regeneration. You want it? I can't really use it."

"Eh, why not?" Yang decides. I toss it to her, and she smoothly puts it into her bag.

"You want to end the dungeon now?" I ask.

"Sure." She nods.

I flip back the switch that started the Instant Dungeon, and we find ourselves back in the hall, where a bunch of students jump out of the way. "I think you misaimed," one of them comments with a chuckle.

"Right, next time, we're exiting in our room," I decide.

"Probably for the best," Yang agrees.

As we return to our room, I notice a system message off to the side. "Oh, hey, I got a new title," I say, a bit surprised.

"Huh? Oh, whoa. There's a lot of these." I glance over at her, and see her looking through a title screen of her own.

"You should look for whichever one you find most useful, and equip it," I suggest before I look at my new ones.

**Beowolf Slayer: +20% Damage to Beowolves. -20% Damage taken from Beowolves. Slay 50 Beowolf in a single day.  
****Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?: You are immune to the Fear status effect. Slay the Big Bad Beowolf.**

Huh. That first one might have been useful during that fight against the big one, but as it is, my Master of Elements title is more useful.

We call it a day, and go to sleep. Well, Yang does. I work on my skills.

* * *

The next morning, I decide to do something about a weapon. Even after all the dust I wasted on that fight, I've got a few grams left to waste. The first thing I need to do though, is have a base weapon worthy of the effort. I head over to the construction lab, pulling up my former designs on my scroll as I do. Crescent Rose. A High Caliber Sniper-Scythe. My backup weapon for when I run low on Aura, or have to spend it on defenses instead of combat. That's the original plan anyways. And then, after my first few attempts fail, and I powerlevel Weaponcrafting for a few hours, (constructing and unmaking what's basically a glorified stick), my semblance suddenly notifies me that I have something called a Synergy Bonus.

**Tutorial:  
****Due to having 2 or more skills with complementary effects, these skills when used together have an effect greater than the sum of their parts.****  
**

Apparently my Lesser Imbuement, my Aura Channeling, and my Weaponcrafting skill all have a synergy bonus with each other. Or more accurately, my other two skills have a synergy bonus with True Imbuement, and Lesser Imbuement, when it hits level 10, will undergo "Skill Evolution" and become True Imbuement. So then I start grinding Lesser Imbuement. By the time I'm out of dust, Lesser Imbuement has evolved into True Imbuement, and I've blown all of the Lien I just earned from yesterday on Dust.

With a sigh, I open another Instant Dungeon and get to work killing beowolves, mostly using my temporarily imbued scythe and a layer of Stoneskin. By the end of it, I've leveled them all, and have a ton of lien, as well as Dust from the beowolves. I use that dust to imbue, run out, need more. So I make another dungeon. And kill more Beowolves. By the time I'm done, I'm level 13 in Imbuement, and pretty confident that the skill cap depends on stats, not total level. My Axe Skill seems to have hit it, and is probably based on the Agility stat or something.

So now that I've got a decent level of imbuement, I can do what I actually _wanted_ to do in the first place, make my shiny new weapon. Which is no longer a scythe/sniper rifle, because apparently Synergy Bonus here allows me to construct Staves, which increase the power of Aura abilities channeled through them. Er, without using up Dust. Normally no one bothers with them, because they're insanely hard to create and no one uses raw Aura in combat anyways, but a few people, Professor Goodwitch from Beacon, for example, do, so it's actually an accepted weapon. Which is how the Crescent Rose turns into a Sniper-Scythe-Staff. Only it looks exactly how it used to on the outside, because the whole Staff part has more to do with how you weave your aura into the item than any physical component.

So now I've got my Crescent Rose, and enough justification to defend myself to anyone that questions it. Especially since one of the things I do is imbue dust into it, then imbue dust into an elemental (which is one of the weirdest things ever when you use a different color dust than the elemental's type), and then infuse the elemental into Crescent Rose.

End result? She's semi-sentient, gives me a huge boost to damage when I'm channeling my Aura through her, and serves perfectly fine as either a Scythe or Sniper Rifle. Actually, she serves better as a sniper rifle, since now she can shoot elementals, Aura Bolts, etc. Admittedly, she's not as good a scythe as she was when she was designed with that primarily in mind, since the weight balance and leverage are kinda off in order to account for the giant crystals I had to pretty much replace the blade and some of the panels with, and her blade doesn't swing on it's axle as easily, so she can't turn into a halberd like she could in her original design, but she's still pretty awesome.

**Crescent Rose, High Impact Sniper Scythe (Staff), Primary Form.  
****Adds 1d10+4 to melee damage as a Scythe.  
****Grants +20% to melee damage.  
****Serves as a High Impact Sniper rifle, dealing 5d10+2 damage.  
****Grants 20% discount to all aura abilities used through the Crescent Rose.  
****Allows usage of abilities through Crescent Rose, using Sniper Rifle's range instead of original range.**

**Crescent Rose, High Impact Sniper Scythe (Staff), Secondary Form.  
****Serves as an Assault Rifle, dealing 4d10-2 damage.  
****Fires up to 3 shots per second in Burst Fire mode.  
****Grants 20% discount to all aura abilities used through the Crescent Rose.  
****Allows usage of abilities through Crescent Rose, using Sniper Rifle's range instead of original range.**

* * *

The rest of the year passes along those lines. I spend a quarter of it developing an Ice Affinity and helping Sterling with his, and the rest of it either training, hanging out with Yang, or sparring during Club or in the Instant Dungeons. I manage to hit level 10, putting all the points into Int, and then manage to level up most the skills that were hovering around the 15 range. They're up in the mid to high-twenties now. And more importantly, my AP and APR are much higher, 1132 and 49.7 respectively. Which, among other things, makes my various elementals actually practical during a fight. They only cost 10 to summon, and 17 to maintain, and can move around a LOT of stuff with only a little bit of Aura. Beyond that, they've got some minor, passive skills that I never noticed because I never managed to hold them for very long. Mainly, they're elementals. As in, while they're there, they know everything going on with the elements around them.

Gnome, in particular, is pretty useful because of that. It's really hard to hide when the earth itself is tracking you. It's summer when I decide to make a contract with with an Ice Elemental. Unfortunately, it's hard to get access to large buckets of ice, so I decide to go with some Blue Dust.

I'm at this small store with a name that Yang would love, "From Dust Till Dawn." I've already bought some Blue Dust, and I was about to head back when I saw a new weapons magazine. I wander over to it, deciding to check it out. Even if I don't really use weapons very much any more, I still really love them. I'm reading when I suddenly get a rather ominous system message. Story Mission: Torchwick's Dust Holdup has been started.

"Wait, what?" I blink at the message in wide-eyed surprise. Suddenly, a female voice rings out, though I have no idea where from.

"Legends. Stories scattered through time," the voice says.

"WHAT?" I barely manage to keep from yelling out in surprise.

The voice continues, ignoring me. "Mankind has grown quite fond of recounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that we are remnants, byproducts, of a forgotten past. Man, born from dust, was strong, wise, and resourceful, but he was born into an unforgiving world. An inevitable darkness — creatures of destruction — the creatures of Grimm - set their sights on man and all of his creations. These forces clashed, and it seemed the darkness was intent on returning man's brief existence to the void. However, even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change, and in time, man's passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity led them to the tools that would help even the odds. This power was appropriately named "Dust." Nature's wrath in hand, man lit their way through the darkness, and in the shadow's absence came strength, civilization, and most importantly, life. But even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die. And when they are gone... darkness will return. So you may prepare your guardians, build your monuments to a so-called "free world," but take heed... there will be no victory in strength."

I hear the door open from behind me, and then Professor Ozpin's voice."But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten. Things that require a smaller, more honest soul." I spin, only to see a red haired man waving robbing the store owner.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a Dust shop open so late?" he asks, his voice almost amused. My eyes glance at everyone's names, levels, and titles. The mooks are simple enough. Mook, Level 1. They're not the real threat here though. That would be the red haired man in the nice suit, Roman Torchwick. Level 27. That's bad enough. But his title? The Gamer.

This isn't going to end well.

* * *

AN: Okay, yeah, this time I'm just being a jerk. XD I totally could have continued onto the fight scene in this chapter.

Notes: Yes, she heard the voice over. Yes, her Semblance is giving her a voice over. No, it has not done that before. She also hasn't done a Story mission before. And yes, Story Missions are very different from Quests. Story Missions are stations of Canon, while Quests are closer to minor side quests.

Next: Torchwick has the exact same potential ability set as Ruby, but he's been going at it from a different path. Personally, I am firmly of the belief that he doesn't have an awakened Aura, and he's _just that badass._ After all, unlike everyone else in RWBY, he doesn't use any supernatural skills and he doesn't use the fancy superhuman martial arts that practically everyone else does. He stands there and hits people or shoots them, and when he encounters a proper huntress, he runs away and has Cinder deal with her. So in this, he still doesn't have an awakened aura, which means that unlike Ruby, who's focusing on her Aura abilities, he's been focusing on delivering a smackdown with his cane. As for his level, he's actually been fighting things and earning EXP. Ruby's been stuck in school. She just recently came across ways to actually earn EXP. On a related note? Torchwick has Story Missions and Titles as well. His, obviously, involve killing the gang of RWBY, taking over the world, etc. ... I suddenly want to make a side story from Torchwicks POV.

Third: Crescent Rose's modifications. It basically looks like the original Crescent Rose, but whole rear-spike thing on the opposite side of the scythe/front of the gun is now a prismatic crystal, as is the blade. She's mixed every type of dust crystal she had to create those crystals, and then installed them. Normally, this would be lethally stupid. Her semblance (and more to the point, the various elemental affinities and contracts) lets her get away with it.

Fourth: More elemental users are going to be showing up at some point. And it's all Ruby's fault. I mean, teaching your allies to make them stronger? Who does that? But yeah, that's another stone setting up a ripple. Guess who's going to specialize in summoning elementals~?

Fifth: Titles. Until she unlocks Red Like Roses, she's probably not going to switch away from Master of Elements. "Known" locked titles appear when she's encountered something that might potentially give her that title.

Sixth: The sudden drop of Dust as a limitation. This is mainly to show the benefits of specialization.

Edit: Added in a few more titles that I'd forgotten about.


	6. Chapter 6: From PvP to PvE

Chapter 6

I open with a round of Observes. The mooks are relatively weak. 3s in each stat, so only 30 in SP and HP. No unlocked Auras among them. Torchwick is a different story.

**Roman Torchwick  
****Semblance: The Gamer (Special)  
****Title: The Gamer  
****Level 27, XP 50.00%  
****HP: 804/804  
****SP: 689/689  
****AP: N/A (Locked)  
****Str: 42  
****Agi: 47  
****Vit: 43  
****Int: 12  
****Wis: 17  
****Luk: 31**

**Visible Skills:  
****One Handed Club Level 39 (3.08% XP): Determines accuracy with One Handed Clubs.  
****Club Mastery Level 25 (11.60% XP): Deal an additional 250% damage with clubs.  
****Gyroc Level 39 (30.77% XP): Determines accuracy with Gyrocs.  
****Rocket Launcher Mastery Level 23 (68.70% XP): Deal an additional 230% damage with Gyrocs.  
****Power Blow Level 45 (88.89% XP): Deal an additional 98% damage with your attack. Costs 5 Stamina.  
****Parry Missile Level 24 (50.00% XP): Your penalty to parry ranged attacks is 48% lower.  
****Description:  
****As a Gamer, Torchwick cannot be Observed to this level.**

Long story short? Torchwick is terrifying. Not just because he has high stats, I'd met a lot of people with higher (I think). But because he has both high stats, and the Gamer Semblance. And he has minions! Why does he get minions? Oh, wait, I have minions too. But _my_ minions cost me Aura! His obviously don't, his Aura isn't even unlocked. Well, we'll see about this unfairness! Even if I _am _alone and feeling rather underleveled for this!

Before I attack, I take a moment to imbue some leftover Red Dust into my cloak, pulling up the Armor options list. One of them gives me a slightly higher Aura regeneration rate, which I hesitate over, but eventually decide not to go with Instead, I end up taking Reinforce Defense, which gives me 20 points of Armor. I pull my hood up, since there's no point leaving my head open, and then use Aura Arrow to unleash 8 arrows at the 5 mooks who are just now noticing me. Their 30 HP are no match for my 24 damage! Well, no, they are, but they've dropped beneath 30% HP, _and_ just lost half their HP all at once, which, according this this nice little tutorial that just popped up...

**Tutorial:  
****HP Damage is painful. If you drop beneath 30%, you will begin taking penalties due to extreme damage, above and beyond any damage inflicted to limbs or other body parts (Negated by your Gamer's Body skill). If you drop beneath 0, you fall unconscious. If you drop beneath -1* you maximum HP, you risk death.**

**Tutorial:  
****If you take more than 25% of your maximum HP total in damage at once, you risk a major wound. Major wounds can have different effects depending on where they occur, inflicting anything from the Unconscious condition if aimed at the torso, to Broken Arm when aimed at the arm.**

**Tutorial:  
****Hit point damage is tracked separately to each body part. Sufficient damage to a body part will result in crippling or even removing it. All damage dealt also affects your overall life total.**

Huh. Wonder why I got that last one? Oh. It's because I blew that one guy's arm off. Okay, that's kinda disgusting. Anyway, one of them's now missing an arm and screaming about it, and 3 of them , the ones who took 2 arrows (I had 8, there were only 5, I wasn't going to _waste_ them), are definitely down, and that last guy's unconscious. I think he took a major wound. Or his ribs got smashed in. Wow. Okay, I'm feeling a bit- A wave of calm washes over me, and the impending nausea disappears, replaced by calm analysis.

"Well." Torchwick sighs, glancing at his knocked down minions. "You were all worth every penny, really, you were." He raises his gaze to meet mine, and I see his eyes rise to look at my name, title, and level. "So, Red," he drawls, "would you like me to explain why it's a bad idea for kiddies to interfere with grown-up matters?"

"I have a name, Roman Torchwick," I growl, pointing my finger at him. "Use it."

"And how would I know it?" he asks. I blink at him in surprise. Wasn't he just looking at it? What's going on? "Speaking of which, how, exactly, do you know mine?"

"... Wait, what? Hold on." I open up my titles menu, and recheck the requirements for the Gamer Title. No, you have to have the Semblance Gamer to have it. Does... does he not know? Maybe it's because his Aura's locked? But I found out about my semblance before I unlocked my Aura. Maybe our versions of the Semblance work differently? And his is like those 'be evil' games, while mine is an RPG? That... might explain it?

"What are you doing?" His voice is suddenly suspicious. His eyes narrow, then widen, then relax. "Well, well, well! And here Cinder told me Semblances were _unique!_ You know, I've been _wondering_ how people's titles change! So tell me, Red, how did you do it?"

"Yeah, I'm not helping you. You're obviously the bad guy," I say, rolling my eyes at him. "So I suggest you surrender."

"I'm seventeen levels above you, and have higher stats in everything but Intelligence, Wisdom, and Aura," he says flatly, pointing his cane at me. "I'm not the one who should be surrendering. And besides," his voice takes on a more amused quality, "why not help me out? We're both Gamers, aren't we? We're the only ones who are real!"

I decide that I've had enough trading witty banter, and go skip to trading bullets. I pull Crescent Rose out of my Inventory, using her to discount my next hail of Aura Arrows. Even if I recover the 6 aura it costs me in just 7 seconds, that's still deriving me of Aura for a bit. Either way, another 8 Aura Arrows fly at him (Current AP: 1127). He uses his cane to smack them out of the air. I immediately Observe it.

**Melodic Cudgel  
****Adds +4 to your damage.  
****Allows you to Parry Aura abilities.  
****Can serve as a 6d10+3 Gyroc, with a Blast Radius of .5 Meters.  
****Allows you to use Melee Skills with the Gyroc.  
****Hookshot.**

"Oh, that's so broken!" I whine. "I don't use anything _but_ Aura abilities!"

"I was wondering how you got away with such low physical stats," he admits before shooting at me. I call up an Aura barrier. Even at max, Melodic Cudgel only does... wait, that's 63 _before_ his multiplier for Mastery. After it it's over 200 damage. My barrier only has 550 HP. Eh. That's still enough to take a couple hits for me.

"Just out of curiosity, when you shoot back, is that barrier going to get in the way?" he asks. I use Crimson Rose to shoot a manifested Gnome at him. He blocks, expecting it to just be a bolt of fire, then goes flying when she sucker-punches him through the glass window and out into the street.

"Okay." I hear him groan as I head out after him. "That kinda hurt." I reobserve him. Gnome is level 10, and has a good 25 strength, which is 4D10-2 damage before any skills kicked in. Since punching people isn't really her style, that doesn't really change the numbers. So 20 damage is her average. He'd taken 24. So no hidden armor or anything I have to worry about. Good. Of course, that _804 HP_ is a bit of a problem. He gets up, then shoots at her. I dematerialize her, partly to avoid the shot, and partly because... well, actually, she's not a very heavy drain on my aura, but she still slows down my regen.

Then I shoot him with some more arrows from Crescent Rose. He blocks them again, so I follow up with an Earthen Grasp. The jerk breaks free almost instantly. Which I should have seen coming, since my effective ST with that is only 17. He retaliates by firing his cane handle at me. I toss up another Barrier. Then I just start spamming Aura Arrows until my aura drops to 100. About halfway through, random notifications start flooding my view. I minimize them all, not wanting them to mess with me view, only for the afterimage of the bright arrows to clear and reveal that the _jerk blocked all of them._

"You know, Red, there's something funny about levels," he says cheerfully. "They give you bonuses to hit and to block. I'm not sure what the exact number is, but frankly, as it is? If I know your attack is coming, you can't hit me! Isn't that great?"

I'm really tempted to throw another elemental at him, but I literally just drained my aura down to 100. "How the heck did you even react that fast?" I grumble. "I shoot like, 8 arrows per use!"

"It's our Gamer's Mind," he explains, leaning on the cane without a care in the world. "The NPCs around us? They're limited. They're stuck working at a level of how fast they can notice things. But us? Our Gamer's mind means we react instantly. We don't get flooded by fear, we don't tire, we don't grow any less efficient. You can stand there and barrage me all day, and I'll still have the exact same chance of blocking the last as I did the first! Oh, but wait, you can't can you? You're running out of Aura."

"Please," I scoff. "You can run out of Stamina or ammo, so don't act like it's some big limitation. At least my aura regenerates at around one per second."

"That's true isn't it?" he muses, then shoots at me. I call up a Barrier.

"I still had enough Aura for that," I say, unimpressed. "Was there a point?"

He shoots it twice more, breaking it, then shoots a third time. I call up another Barrier.

"Okay, seriously, is there a point to this?" I ask, frowning.

"I have fifty more shots ready." He grins. "Do you have enough aura to take that many? My Observe is telling me that you don't."

... I really shouldn't have tried that arrow barrage. In my defense, that should have worked! What kind of person can block over 1600 arrows?

I glare at him, then activate my Instant Dungeon Create. Jerk. I'll rest here for a bit and oh come on!

"You know, now that I know you have this skill, you have no excuse for being such a low level," he says, smirking at me. "I mean, how long have you had your Semblance? Two years I'm guessing? You got it before you woke your Aura, or you'd wouldn't have realized that I have it despite my Aura still being locked. And you're only level 10? You attend Signal, Red! Their whole job is to get you up a bunch of levels! What have you been _doing_ with your time?" He shakes his head in mock disappointment, then shoots at me again.

I put up another barrier, then shoot him with a spray of arrows. He can't shoot me while he's blocking and did he just _dodge? And shoot back? _This is so unfair! I end the dungeon, his attack shattering my Barrier as we return to reality. He starts backing away, not turning his back. I guess his parrying only works if he can see the attack coming. Ugh. I'm not letting him get away unhassled. I raise Crescent Rose, switching her to burst fire mode, then start spraying bullets. He dodges, having no visible trouble weaving through the shots, and blocking those that would otherwise hit him.

"You know, we don't have to be enemies, Red," he says conversationally. "And why are you fighting me anyway? Just for some NPC shopkeeper?"

"Okay, what are you talking about?" I demand, reloading my baby and summoning another barrier as he takes advantage of the lul to shoot back.

"You haven't realized yet?" He looks delighted. "We're the only real people! We Gamers! All those others who don't have this power? They're just the supporting cast! The extras! The jokers we get to have fun with, the merchants we buy stuff from, or the minions who support us. They're NPCs, Red! Just toys for us to play with or break, whatever we want!"

"Make sense, would you?" I demand, opening fire again.

"Look, Red. No one in a game knows they're in a game. It'd break immersion. So the ones who do are the people playing the game. That's what we are. We're _gamers._ We're just people playing a game. Everyone else? They're _scenery._ They're just here to make things exciting. Make it fun. Provide a bit of a challenge. They're. Not. Real."

"And what about our family?" I challenge. "Or anyone who awakens the Gamer Semblance?"

He scoffs. "You're obviously not familiar with the finely crafted backstories that characters have. That's all they are. People from your backstory. Ready made minions and adventuring companions. And besides, why not tell me when you awoke your Semblance? Two years ago, right?"

"So?" I ask, using Argon, my Steel Elemental, to summon a tough wall between me and him.

"That's when the game began. Everything until then? Just irrelevant backstory," he says derisively. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get going." He grabs a ladder attached to the side of a building, quickly pulling himself up it. I dismiss Argon, following him up the ladder. He's getting into a Bullhead as I arrive, smirking the whole time. I summon Roc, then nod towards the vehicle. A moment later, it stops working. The look on his face is hilarious as the Bullhead starts falling out of the sky. "Cinder!" he yells. "What did she do?" He leaps out, landing awkwardly on the rooftop in front of me, just in time for Roc to blast him with a bolt of lightning. He blocks it with his cane, then shoots at me again. I use the last of my Aura to throw up another Barrier. A moment later, another woman appears on the Rooftop. Cinder Fall. Level ?. Huntress. "What did she do?" he demands again.

"Took out the power," Cinder explains, giving me an... intrigued look. "So what Semblance does she have?"

"Same as mine," he replies, gritting his teeth. "_Exactly_ the same as mine. So she shouldn't have been able to do that."

"Interesting." She raises her hand, sending a bolt of flame at me. It smashes into my barrier, taking it down. I my teeth, not having enough Aura to do anything else. She sends another bolt of fire at me. I dodge. Despite her much higher level, I actually manage to. But that's probably less because of me, and more because of the purple wall that just appeared.

And then _Glynda Goodwitch_ appears. If this were any less tense, I'd squee, but I'm a bit busy desperately dodging Torchwick's bullets, using Sprint to give me sudden bursts of speed. Despite what he says, there's obviously some sort of human element to this. The shots don't curve around to hit me or anything when I throw myself out of the way. A few seconds of that later, I've recovered enough Aura to resummon my Elementals. I keep it in reserve, dodging some more, using Crescent Rose's dismally low supply of bullets to give me the boosts I need as my Stamina runs low. And also to let me jump from rooftop to rooftop, and knock myself around in mid-air.

Finally, I have enough Aura. I summon Gnome, then have her shove the Earth beneath my opponents _away_. It doesn't affect much, but it _does_ get rid of the ground they're standing on. Cinder backflips away from the suddenly disappearing ground, then uses a bolt of flame to boost herself away. Torchwick on the other hand, launches something that I can't quite spot - the hook portion of his cane, maybe - and grabs onto a ledge with it. I immediately shoot at it, knocking it loose, then take a flame bolt to the chest as Cinder decides to express her displeasure at being interfered with. On the bright side, Professor Goodwitch manages to bleed off most of the damage with her own abilities. On the not so bright side, being out of aura, the 100 damage remaining is still enough to smack me straight down to the negatives.

* * *

_Is it dead? It cannot be dead. It has not answered my question yet! Who would dare to kill it before I have spoken to it? I howl my rage to the world, and the humans scatter before me. They fear me, as they should, but now the taste of fear hides its flavor, and I know less and less of what condition it is in. I ignore them, moving towards cleaner areas. Areas with fewer flavors to sift through. Its taste is absolute, noticeable from anywhere. I do not require proximity. But it is hard to find when so many others flood my senses. _

_A hunter appears, a human who tastes of false fire. Many of them do, nowadays, imbuing the fallen shards of the moon within themselves, taking on false aspects. Do they do this to distract me? I wonder. Some of the others have begun taking on aspects of the elements. Of steel, fire, and earth. But I know this is because of It. The shadow one. It teaches them, I know this. I tasted it near those who take on those aspects. It revives ancient knowledge. Will it know where our Master is?_

_I turn my gaze upon the fallen hunter. He lives, still, but he will not for long. I wonder... could I take his form for my own?_

**You Had a Nightmare. You did not recover HP, SP, or AP today.**

When I wake up, it's in a very unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room, and to somewhat unfamiliar voices. "-n't interrogate her, she's far too injured."

"She is a huntress in training." The other voice sounds soothing. "Her aura will have her standing again quickly. Injuries are not as crippling for us as they would be for others." Speaking of which, I'm already at full health. "Besides, her aura and body both recover at a spectacular rate, far beyond any of ours. She was regenerating wounds in front of our eyes." Okay, that's both incredibly cool, and incredibly creepy that they were watching me heal. "But if you insist, then perhaps you would sit in with me?"

"I will," the first voice decides.

The door to the room swings open, revealing a man with gray hair, brown eyes, a black and green shirt, and really small glasses. He's followed by a blonde, green eyed woman dressed in black and white, and with a violet cape. Headmaster Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch. Both Level ?, and Headmaster and Professor of Beacon Academy respectively.

The headmaster's carrying a glass of milk, and a bunch of cookies, which totally would have put him into my "awesome people" book even if he wasn't already there just by being the headmaster of Beacon.

"Ah, Miss Rose." He nods at me. "You're awake."

"Yeah!" I say, then turn my gaze towards Professor Goodwitch, "Oh, um, thanks for helping me with Torchwick and Cinder, by the way. They were way too strong for me to win against on my own."

"At least you're aware of that," Professor Goodwitch says stiffly. "May I ask why you thought taking him on was a good idea? Torchwick is a rather notorious criminal."

"He is?" I ask sheepishly. "I just fought him because, well, he was robbing the place, and I was there, and well, who else was going to stop him?"

"Speaking of stopping him," Headmaster Ozpin interjects, "may I ask how you did so?"

"Oh, well, first I used a bunch of Aura arrows to take out his guards, like whacha, and then-" I start getting excited as I speak, reverting to my older, overly excited manner of speaking a bit.

He chuckles, interrupting me. "No, not that part. We have that part on video. I was asking about how you managed to stop the Bullhead. The military is rather concerned about that, you see, so they asked me to ask you."

"Oh, that. I just had Roc turn off the power," I say somewhat dismissively.

"Roc?" he asks, raising an eyebrow. "A friend of yours?"

"Kind of," I say sheepishly. "Roc's a lightning elemental. Weird name right? But apparently Rocs are a type of giant bird."

"The same type of elemental that you were teaching the summer classes to summon?" he demands.

I shrug. "Well, they were allowed to build an affinity with any element they wanted, and lightning's really hard to build an affinity to. Batteries and stuff won't work, you have to set up a full fledged Tesla Coil."

"As much of a relief as that is to hear, I find far greater comfort in the fact that gaining even a... lesser affinity, as you called it, requires the better part of a year," he says dryly. "And that only one student, the one you personally spent a significant amount of time tutoring, has achieved even that. Speaking of which, may I ask what an adorable little girl such as yourself is doing at a school to teach warriors?"

"I want to be a Huntress," I say.

"You want to slay monsters." He's not really asking as much as he is confirming something.

"Well, I want to help people," I quibble, "and slaying Grimm just seems to be the best way. Or, well, the least morally ambiguous way. There's no worrying about if this person's good or evil, or if they can be redeemed, or if they really deserve to go to jail, like there is with the police. We protect everyone from the Grimm, no questions. But... I guess it's also a family thing. My parents were both hunters, Uncle Qrow's a hunter, my elder sister, Yang, she's a hunter, or at least, in training to be one. She's going to Beacon this year, you know?"

"Are you planning on attending as well?" Ozpin asks gently.

I nod. "Definitely. I'm going to apply in a couple years, and I've already got my not-quite-apprenticeship with Dr. Oobleck."

Ozpin stares into my eyes for a moment, then nods. "Well, all right."

"Huh?" I stare at him in confusion, and he smiles.

"Welcome to Beacon, Ruby Rose. I do hope you'll choose to attend."

(I AM A LINE)

"I can't believe my baby sister's going to Beacon with me!" Yang cheers as we get on the bus.

"I can't believe you've repeated that five times already!" I grouse in return.

"Yeah, we're a rather unbelievable pair." Yang grins. I grin back.

"Your energy is, anyway," Blake comments, sounding incredibly amused at our expense. I stick my tongue out at her.

"Oh, come on, aren't you excited?" I ask, "We're going to become huntresses!"

She nods. "I'm excited, just not quite that energetic."

"Oh, come-" I'm interrupted by the tv screen.

"Hello, and welcome to Beacon!" The screen announces. "My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."

"Oh wow!" I stare out the window as the image fades, revealing the entire landscape beneath us. "Look, you can see Signal from here!"

"Didn't you mention you had an apprenticeship with Dr. Oobleck?" Blake asks, curious. I'm too busy looking out over my former home to answer, so Yang does instead.

"We came here in one of those fast, closed ships," Yang explains. "We didn't really get a good view at any point, and Ruby spent most of the journeys tired from working at an Affinity." Blake must have somehow made some gesture of confusion, because Yang continues. "It's a thing that Ruby can do. She can sort of align herself with an element. If she does, it makes any Aura abilities using that element cost her a lot less aura, and also allows her to contract with an elemental of that type."

"You mean like when she knocked herself out and your uncle tried to arrest me for it?" she asks, her voice not quite sarcastic, but definitely getting there.

"Heh. Did I ever apologize for that?" I ask sheepishly, tearing myself away from the view.

"No, but don't worry about it," Blake assures me. "Now that I look back on it, it actually was a bit humorous."

"Excuse me!" someone blurts as he rushes past. A moment later, and before he can get to the trash can, he starts vomiting.

"Oh, gross." Yang, Blake, and I all immediately begin backing up.

After we make it to the other end of the bus, I decide that I might as well get around to turning in my quest and also seeing just what all those notifications were. Turning in the quest nets me 10,000 EXP, leveling me, 50,000 Lien, and another quest, which I minimize for now. I put all the points into Int, and get another 3 notifications to deal with. I minimize them for now as well, and move on to the first of the ones from the fight with Torchwick.

**Your actions have unlocked the title There Is No Overkill...**

There's three more titles in there, Worf Barrage, Blot Out the Sky and Living Artillery. I decide to check out the details after I see what the rest of the notifications are. Apparently, they're skills. The first is Overwhelm, which lets me make my attacks harder to avoid by spending SP. Would have been useful a while ago! The second is Bullet Hell, which increases the number of arrows by 10%.

I switch back to the titles.

**There is No Overkill: Increases the amount of missiles in any multishot ranged attack by 50%. Use over 100 attacks within 20 seconds.  
****Worf Barrage: Increases damage by 10%. Use an attack sequence that deals over 500 potential points of damage, and have none of it actually be dealt to your opponent.  
****Blot Out the Sky: Your ranged attacks are invisible, but only do 1/2 damage. Use enough attacks to make vision impossible through sheer quantity.  
****Living Artillery: Increase damage with ranged attacks by 50%. Ranged attacks detonate and explode upon contact. Have a damage output of over 500 over 5 seconds.**

Okay, those are kinda cool. Totally going to switch my Mastery of Elements title to Living Artillery. Now I look at the three new notifications I got for leveling up my Int.

**Your Intelligence has increased to above 50! You have earned the Burning Aura skill!  
****Aura Affinity MAX: Your AP is increased by 5%. Your APR is increased by 10%. You can learn the Powerful Aura skill.  
****Powerful Aura Level 1: Your damage with Aura based abilities increases by 5%.**

Okay, so increasing a stat beyond level 50 grants extra benefits? That's good to know. I wonder what'll happen if I get my Wisdom above 50? Or if I get Int to 100? Oh well, I'll deal with it later.

Blake, Yang, and I spend the rest of the time talking, and pretty soon, we've arrived at Beacon. Frankly, it's a good thing that I came here pretty often a couple summers ago, or I'd be totally lost. Despite that, I get distracted by all the shiny new weapons I've never seen before, and lose track of Yang and Blake.

"Yang! Blake!" I call out, looking around somewhat frantically. "Where did you two go?" I growl in annoyance when I fail to see them, then summon Gnome. My relatively high Aura regeneration rate combined with her relatively low cost means that not only am I not using mana despite using her frivolously, but I'm actually regaining some. The only reason they're not more useful in a fight is because losing 17 points of regeneration per minute is losing 3 usages of Aura Arrow per minute, and because activating any of her abilities costs mana on top of her passive abilities. Luckily, all I need right now are those passive abilities. "Gnome, where are Blake and Yang?"

"That way." She points at the building.

"You realize there's no one there," a voice says from behind me. I yelp, spin, get my cloak caught on something, fall, catch myself, have what I caught myself on suddenly start moving, and fall again, this time having Gnome manifest herself and catch me.

"Okay, I'm good," I say after a moment of making sure I'm not going to fall again.

"You also crashed my Dust into a wall, and who is that?" the person asks, sounding simultaneously annoyed and intrigued.

I have Gnome put me down, then stand up, brushing myself off, and take a proper look at the person I'm talking to. Weiss Schnee, Glyphcaster. Level 10. Full health. She's... white. She's got white hair, white skin, white clothes (with a little bit of red) and light blue eyes.

"This is Gnome!" I say cheerfully. "She's an earth elemental I contracted with."

She blinks in confusion, then her eyes clear up a bit. "Contracted with? You mean you actually managed to create an affinity?" She sounds excited, and she should be, because Gnome is awesome. "I heard that they only had that class for one summer, and due to the difficulty of it, no one managed to even create their Affinities, let alone contract! How did you manage to get in? They were only letting the current students at Beacon learn, because the teacher could only demonstrate the summoning four times." She suddenly freezes, then calms down, looking a bit embarrassed at her loss of composure.

"In my defense, it took me a quarter of a year for each of those affinities," I protest. "And then I made the contract in, like, a minute! And it's really, really, tiring and painful."

"Wait, what?" She blinks at me in surprise. "Who are you again?"

"Oh, right! My name's Ruby Rose! Nice to meetcha!"

"Weiss Schnee," she replies automatically. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well."

"Oh, we should get to the orientation," I suddenly realize. "C'mon."

"Wait, my dust!" she protests.

"Right!" I help her get the briefcases full of Dust repacked, and we quickly make our way towards the meeting hall. After arriving, we both give a polite goodbye, hers a bit more polite than mine, and split up.

"I can't believe you two ditched me!" I hiss when I finally manage to find Yang and Blake, chatting away cheerfully. Yang just grins at me.

"But you made a friend, so obviously it didn't go badly."

"I didn't make a friend, I crashed into her luggage! It's a good thing she's pretty even tempered," I grumble.

"You two looked friendly enough," Yang says optimistically. "You should go talk to her! What happened anyways?"

"I couldn't find you guys, so I summoned Gnome to ask her to find you for me. And then she, Weiss, the girl, was like, 'you know no one's there right?' So then I got startled, and fell over, and knocked her luggage over, and it was full of Dust," I whine. "I'm lucky it didn't all fall out and explode or something."

"Well, you would have started the day with a bang!" Yang grins. I glare at her, but don't say anything, instead checking my Title List. I'm kinda curious what Glyphcaster does.

**Glyphcaster: Glyphs cost 75% less. Glyphcaster Semblance.**

... Well that was completely unhelpful. And also, something I'm never going to earn. Stupid Semblance, taunting me.

"Who did you run into, anyway?" Blake asks, her eyes slightly narrowed.

"Oh! Her name's Weiss Schnee," I say, realizing I hadn't mentioned it.

"From the Schnee Dust company?" Blake asks. I shrug.

"I've never heard of it, so no idea," I admit.

We're interrupted from talking further as Headmaster Ozpin gets up front to give his speech. "I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." I shift uncomfortably, but calm down a bit when Professor Goodwitch joins him.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed." She dismissed us, and we all flood out of the room. Yang takes the lead, having actually been awake and properly conscious when we were first given the tour. I was a bit tired from my first summoning at the time.

"You know, he seemed a bit... off," Yang comments.

"He wasn't actually there," Blake says absently. "I'm pretty sure it was some sort of illusion technique."

"How did you-?" Yang begins. She's cut off as Blake points at a bow on her head. No, wait, that's a ribbon, wrapped around her ears. Huh. That's actually a pretty good disguise. It's all subtle and stuff!

"We have better senses," she murmurs.

Night arrives, and I suddenly realize that I haven't actually told anyone at my old school that I'm in Beacon now. I should probably do that. I pull out my Scroll, messaging Sterling. "Hey. I got into a fight with a couple criminals, took out a Bullhorn, broke a building, and I'm at Beacon now."

"The fight was on the news," he sends back. "Your utter failure to hit after spamming over a thousand Aura arrows was laughed at. Might want to watch out for a bad rep from that. Might be counterbalanced by high quantity though. You're teaching summoning again?"

"Nope! Student this time! :D Headmaster invited me after the fight," I gloat.

"That's awesome!" he replies. "Also, you suck for leaving me behind. D:"

"Go beat up a criminal and take out a Bullhorn, I'm sure they'll let you in too!" I suggest.

"Yeah, no thanks. I'd lose rather badly. Anyway, I've got a bit of homework to do. I'll contact you later." He signs off, and I giggle before turning back to Yang.

"Talking to Sterling?" she asks.

"Yep!" I say cheerfully. "Apparently my fight was on the news."

"Wait, you didn't see it yet?" Yang asks, staring at me in surprise. "Someone caught a video with their scroll, then sold it to the news. The quality's horrible and your hood's up, so it's hard to tell it's you, and it gets a lot less exciting after you get to the roof, but it shows stuff like the Bullhorn falling out of the sky, and your massive barrage of Aura Arrows. People tried to make fun of you for it until someone noted that with that many arrows, missing is practically impossible, so it's much more likely that Torchwick's just that good. He's got a pretty high bounty on him now because of that."

"They also put it to music. And made fan art," Blake notes, pulling up the video and handing me a pair of earbuds. There's at least five different songs for the fight, all of them some sort of dramatic battle music. Due to the bad quality, there's also a bunch of guesses as to what I actually look like, and it's depressing because none of them are even slightly accurate. Since they only saw my red cloak, my black combat skirt, and the red dust from the dust containers still on my sleeves, they drew me as some evil hooded villain with glowing red eyes! At least they got my baby right. Oh that reminds me, I need to polish her again!

"Reaper?" I let out an annoyed sputter as I read the proposed name. "Really?" It gets worse when my Semblance agrees with them.

**You have gained the Title Grimm Reaper through the special event, "On The News."**

I groan, checking what it does, then groan again. It's actually _good._ A 20% increase to my mana and mana regen. Regen would hit almost a hundred if I did! On the other hand, it's... ugh. I let out a groan, letting my head collapse into my arms.

"What is it?" Yang asks, a bit worried.

"I got a new title," I grumble. "It's called Grimm Reaper. And it's _good._" Yang immediately cracks up. Blake just gives me an amused look.

The rest of the night passes peacefully, the others sleeping while I meditate, taking advantage of my newly raised level to work on my various aura and aura regeneration increasing skills. I don't manage to level any of them, they need too much exp each, but I do make a decent amount of progress. The next morning, we all get ready for the initiation. Preparation passes quickly, with nothing more interesting than the boy who threw up earlier getting stabbed against a wall by his shirt. Pretty soon, we get called out to the Beacon Cliff for initiation. There's a bunch of launchers where we're obviously supposed to stand, so I grab one next to Yang. The boy who threw up earlier grabs the one on my right.

Headmaster Ozpin gets up front, in front of the cliff edge, and starts speaking. "For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

Professor Goodwitch takes over. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of "teams." Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today." Oh, that's good! Wait, _given_ teammates?

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well," Headmaster Ozpin notes. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." ... WHAT? HE JUST- "After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die. You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

I groan, but ready myself. No one actually wants questions when they ask in that tone, so there's no point asking.

"Yeah, um sir?" a boy asks. I glance at him in surprise. Then my eyes widen. Juane Arc. Level 3. False Knight. Full Health. How did he even get in?

"Good!" Ozpin ignores him. "Now take your positions."

I disregard the kid, and ready my mental switch for Lightning Form with a grimace. Even if my fight with Torchwick put my Aura Regen high enough to maintain it without any drain, being in the form is _really_ uncomfortable, and while I'm in it, I lose access to most of my skills, and my HP and SP both drop like rocks.

"Uh, sir? I've got, um... a question," Jaune continues. "So, this landing... strategy thing... Uh, wha-what is it? You're, like, dropping us off or something?"

"No. You will be falling," Ozpin says simply.

"Oh, uh, I see... So, did you, like, hand out parachutes for us?" the kid asks. I'm actually starting to feel a bit sorry for him. Did he miss the day where they explained how to shield with your Aura or something?

"No. You will be using your own landing strategy," Ozpin says, not actually explaining anything to him as Blake launches.

"Uh-huh... Yeah," Jaune nods, obviously still not getting it. Yang winks at me, pulling on a pair of sunglasses, then launches with a loud whoop of joy. I follow, taking a second to shoot vomit-boy a sympathetic look.

I quickly activate my Lightning Form as I fly through the air, redirecting my velocity downwards and towards a tree top. I smash through it, continuing on the hit the ground. I smash against it, leaving rather impressively sized crater, if I say so myself, then pull myself out of the form, wincing. While I caught most of the damage from the collisions on my Aura, a bit of it still bled through. I take a moment to let my Aura regenerate it off, then a minute to let my Aura regenerate itself. Then I summon Gnome. "Gnome, where's the temple?" I ask her. She shrugs at me.

"What does it look like?" she asks. I open my out to explain, then realize I have no idea. Probably should have asked. Hm. Okay, fine, I can work around this.

"Where are Yang and Blake?" I ask. She raises her hands, pointing them out. "Okay, just Yang." Blake is awesome and all, but I'd still rather be with my sister. Gnome drops her left hand, and I cheerfully begin heading that way. About ten minutes of walking later, I run into a pair of beowolves. Level 5s. I put them down with some Aura Arrows and move on. After a bit more walking, I run into Weiss again.

"Oh, um hi!" I say after a moment. She looks up, meets my eyes, then nods.

"It looks like we'll be partners then," she says cautiously.

"Yup! Hold on." I mentally invite her, and she lets out a surprised cry as the screen appears in front of her.

"Ah! What did you do?" she demands.

"It's part of my Semblance!" I say cheerfully. "While you're in my group, it makes you a little bit stronger, and allows us to keep track of each other's health, aura levels, and stamina! You can also open a status screen and stuff to see more details about your own condition."

"That sounds extremely useful," she says. "It'll let us optimize our combat situations! What else does it do?"

"Uh, as far as I know, that's all it really does for anyone else using it," I say sheepishly. "It does a bit more for me, but that's not really important."

"And your elemental from earlier, Gnome, she can track people, right?" Weiss confirms.

"Uh huh!" I nod cheerfully. "And I can also see those things that it lets you see on yourself, but for my opponents."

"Definitely useful," Weiss decides. "Okay, so how I do this? Just touch the accept button?"

"Yup!" I nod. "And then when you want to see your status screen for more details, just think 'Status' to yourself."

She taps accept, then immediately looks at her status screen.

"What's the baseline?" she asks.

"I think 5's about average for a stat at level one?" I say after a moment of thought. "And then 30s for HP, AP, and SP."

"What are yours at?" Her voice is absentminded, but still contains an edge of competitiveness.

"Seven or eight for everything except intelligence and wisdom, 54 for intelligence, and 20 for wisdom," I rattle off. "79 for HP, 1372 for AP, and 81 for SP."

"What's the title?" She points at it.

"It means creating your glyphs doesn't cost as much as they'd cost anyone else," I explain. "And your Semblance lets you make them."

She nods, then closes her status screen. "I suppose it's accurate enough," Weiss decides. "The skill list is somewhat off though. It claims that I need 100 Aura to use my Glyphs, but I can most definitely use them more than twice."

"Your Glyphcaster title reduces it to 25 per use," I point out. "And then using dust kicks it down to about 5."

"That explains it," she decides. "Well. Gnome can navigate, right? Which way to the Temple?"

"Uh, funny story..." I say sheepishly. "I kinda need to know what the temple looks like for Gnome to find it, and since I don't..."

She stares at me for a moment, then looks around. "Okay, this way," she decides after a moment.

* * *

AN:

Fight against Torchwick: This happened. XD It started off pretty similar to Canon, then quickly went off the rails. Ruby lost miserably, especially once Cinder showed up, but Cinder and Torchwick took significantly more losses than they expected, mainly due to Ruby being a spellcaster who goes for versatility instead of raw power. Or more accurately, who find herself having versatility instead of raw power, completely by accident.

Meeting Weiss: This went differently, mainly because of how Ruby meets her. Unlike in canon, where Ruby just kinda randomly sits down in the middle of her luggage, this time, Ruby only interacts with it because Weiss interrupted her. Weiss is perfectly aware that it's her fault, having startled Ruby, who was just trying to recover. Beyond that, the dust didn't fall out or explode, and Weiss wasn't subsequently annoyed by Blake pointing out her family's amoral business practices.

And then Ruby demonstrated an ancient, powerful, and newly recovered technique in order to _keep herself from falling._ That's like using a nuke to kill an ant. It works, but it's complete disproportionate. If you're doing stuff like that, people tend to take you a bit more seriously (and treat you as somewhat insane). That is, Ruby is _obviously_ at least somewhat competent, and therefore, does not need to be berated for a mistake that's not exactly her fault.

The Video: Ruby fought VERY differently here. In canon, she's leaping around, her cloak's flapping, and it's generally very obvious who she is. In this, her hood's up to give Armor to her head, and she's barely moving, instead either raining hell by pointing, or summoning barriers by, at most, waving a hand.


	7. Chapter 7: Stage 1, Emerald Forest

Chapter 7

"Are we lost?" I ask Weiss suspiciously.

"Of course not!" she says proudly.

"Then where are we going?" I repeat.

"We are going... to... the Temple," her voice is rather obviously uncertain, and I give her a _look._

"Weiss, you can tell me if you don't know where it is. I can just... summon an army of elementals or something," I say soothingly.

"You can?" She sounds surprised. "Really?"

"Well, I can summon up to six," I correct, "and they're a lot weaker than if I summon only 2 or 3. Speaking of which, I really need to get into the habit of having at least 2 of them out at all times." I don't see myself needing to recover Aura quickly any time soon, so I quickly summon Gnome and Roc, both manifested. The drain of 34 aura every minute isn't enough to counteract my regeneration of 66 per minute, though it does halve it. Oh well.

"Huh. I thought they'd look creepier," Weiss comments absently. I pout at her, then turn to my little minions.

"Roc, fly up and scout. Link your vision to mine, so I can see what's going on. Gnome, tell me if we get close to any Grimm," I order them. They both nod, then Roc shoots up, like a lightning bolt in reverse.

"You can link vision with them?" Weiss asks, surprised. I nod proudly.

"Uh huh! They cost way too much aura for me to use them in combat easily, but they've got a bunch of passive abilities that are really useful."

"Like?" she demands.

"Well..." I think it over, organizing my thoughts. "Let's see. Any of them can inform me of what they sense, though their weirder senses, like Gnome's earthsense or Roc's ability to see Ultraviolet and Infrared light are really hard to interpret, and usually give me a headache. So I usually just give them orders and let them interpret things for me. They're also decent in a fight. Even the low strength ones like Salamander and Roc are pretty much made out of their element, so while they can't hit that hard, they still do damage as per the element. They're not very imaginative though, so I have to give them orders and be pretty clear about things. I can't just say find me something that looks useful, I have to order them to get a crowbar, you know?"

"So they're closer to low level robots?" Weiss confirms. I nod.

"Uh huh! That's a good example. They also have their unique forms of mobility. Roc can fly without any problem, because lightning. She can also take over electronics. Fine control needs aura, but simply turning something on or off's pretty easy. Salamander's immune to fire and heat and stuff, but that's not useful. She's more of a combat type anyway. Since she's on fire, she's the only one who has any sort of Area effect even before spending Aura. Gnome can move through earth without disturbing it, so she can walk through low quality walls and stuff. My Metal elemental, Argon, can turn into weapons or armor. It's a lot less useful than it sounds though. She's also okay at noticing things, but she's better as a Tank, since it's really hard to hurt her. Next is my Water Elemental, Undine. She can swim really well, and sense stuff in the water, but since we don't really go near lakes or whatever much, she's not as useful as I thought she'd be. And finally Frost, my Ice elemental. She can move through ice like it's not there, and just by being there, it gets really cold. Physically speaking, she's a lot like Argon, but she's not quite as tough or hard hitting. She does cause frostbite when she hits though, so she's not straight up worse or anything."

"And you can have all of them here at once," she confirms. I nod.

"They're weaker, since I can't feed them as much power, but I can."

"Can you have multiple of the same type?" she asks, curious. I open my mouth the answer, then realize I have no idea.

"I don't know. I'll check!" I've still got about 9 levels worth left, so I feed it into a trio of level 3 lightning elementals. It works, and suddenly, I'm hit by all four of my lightning elemental's visions at once. "Ugh. Kind of," I explain after I manage to organize what I'm seeing into 4 screens hovering at the bottom right of my vision. "They're all the same elemental, just, multiple copies of it? Kinda? It's weird."

"Interesting," she muses. I nod.

"Do you mind if we sit down? I'm going to focus on their scouting and Gnome's earth vision, so it'll be hard for me to pay attention to where we're going, and last time I tried, I walked into a tree." Weiss nods, sitting delicately on a rock. I close my eyes and focus. It takes me a while, but eventually, one of the mini-lightning elementals manages to find what appears to be a giant stone temple, on the edge of the cliff, and connected by a bunch of stone bridges and stands. It looks dangerous, and like a single misstep will send you tumbling down into a very deep pit. So of course, there's a Nevermore guarding it. It immediately tries to eat my poor lightning elemental, whom I dismiss before it can. I send the image of the building to Gnome, who immediately gives me directions, before opening my eyes. "Found it,." I say, grinning.

"And it only took you the better part of an hour," Weiss says sarcastically. I give her an annoyed look, and she sighs. "Oh, fine. I'll admit, it _was_ faster than walking."

"Nyeh." I stick my tongue out at her for a moment, before focusing my attention back on Gnome. "C'mon. It'll take a while to get there."

It does, but mainly because we're stopped halfway by Pyrrha Nikos (Level 13, Gladiator, Full Health) and Jaune Arc (Level 3, False Knight, health somewhere around 70%), running away from a Death Stalker (Level 16, Soulless, ~90% health). I immediately order Gnome to engage it, giving her access to 100 Aura per minute. It'll drain me out if I take too long, but that's better than having to blow 10 Aura each time I need to resummon her. It'll also let her do things like what she's doing now, stabbing the Death Stalker with a spear of earth. I back off a bit, Observing it.

**Death Stalker  
****Title: Soulless  
****Level 16, XP 50.00%  
****HP: 452/500  
****SP: 500/500  
****AP: N/A (Locked)  
****Str: 50  
****Agi: 15  
****Vit: 50  
****Int: 5  
****Wis: 3  
****Luk: 3  
****Visible Skills:  
****Stinger Level 39 (3.08% XP): Determines accuracy with One Handed Clubs.  
****Power Blow Level 45 (88.89% XP): Deal an additional 98% damage with your attack. Costs 5 Stamina.  
****Stinger Mastery Level 25 (93% XP): Deal an additional 50% damage with a stinger.  
****Armored Carapace, Level MAX: Armor Level 30.  
****Grimm Restoration, Level 2: Regenerates 2% per minute.  
****Description:  
****A decently aged creature of Grimm, the land bound Death Stalker, despite it's lack of significant intelligence, remains a powerful threat. Its Armored Carapace allows it to shrug off many lesser blows, and and its Stinger can do immense damage to the unprepared. Combined with it's Power Blow special ability, being hit by a Death Stalker can often prove deadly.  
****Death Stalkers were singlehandedly responsible for the loss of Tiamer to the wilderness 500 years ago, which dealt the deathblow to the already dying art of Aura Blades.**

**A Quest has been created!  
****Aura Blades  
****The town of Tiamer, a good 350 miles east of Beacon Academy, has long since been lost to Death Stalker infestations. Cleanse it with fire and sword, and recover the knowledge long lost.  
****Rewards: 3,000 XP, 12,000 Lien.  
****Failure Penalty: None**

... Okay, that was interesting, and now I totally want to find out what Aura Blades are, but also a bit of a tangent from what I was looking at. I call up a 1 level lightning elemental, then send it over to Weiss, unmanifested. "It's got an Armor level of 30," it hisses to her in my voice. "That means that the first 30 damage you hit it with per attack is ignored." In the meantime, I switch titles to Living Artillery. The 50% damage increase is significantly more helpful than a regen and mana bonus right now. I wince a bit as my current mana drops, but pull out Crimson Rose and open fire. Luckily, the thing isn't very agile, and doesn't manage to dodge my barrage of 10 Aura Arrows, each of which do 36 damage... before its armor reduces them to 6 each. So 60. Okay, I just took out about 10% of it's health. Not bad. Of course, that attracts its attention, and it disregards the others to focus on me.

I barrage again, this time only doing 1 damage per arrow. "Weiss!" I have Mini-roc hiss at her. "Can you hold it? If you can, I should be able to wear it down." I call back my other lightning elementals, then raise my eyebrows in surprise as Gnome spends only 2 and a half mana to rain a bunch of stone shards on it. Unfortunately, they fail to even injure it, simply bouncing off its armor helplessly. I start retreating as I shoot, accepting the loss in accuracy. Of course, the creature's so big that it's barely a loss, and I still manage to hit with them all anyway... not that it does much good. Stupid jerkface.

I drop an Aura Barrier in front of it, hoping to slow it down. The things have 850 HP now. It... works, actually, and a lot better than I expected. The Death Stalker's tail smashes down, hitting it for only 79 damage. Huh. I can take about 10 of those hits per barrier. Okay, this might actually turn out pretty well. I switch back to my Reaper title, taking advantage of the increased mana regen. Unfortunately, my current mana doesn't rise to match the rise in the cap, but that's okay. The almost 100 mana regen per minute part's more important.

Pyrrha, having noticed that it's temporarily held back by a Mana Barrier, starts opening fire with her rifle, the bullets doing about as much damage as individual arrows. Fortunately, her stats appear to be rather significant across the board, and I get the feeling that level 13 is underestimating her capabilities. She manages to knock the Stalker down another 10% or so in only a single hit, which, considering the sucker's armor, is pretty darn impressive. And then the next hit Power Attacks, doing almost double that. I decide to switch from my apparently useless bombardments to just keeping the Death Stalker off her back. "Weiss, keep freezing, I'll help with Gnome. Pyrrha, we'll keep it from attacking you, moving, or blocking, just stab the thing."

I unmanifest Gnome and then user her to back up Weiss's Freeze Glyphs with massive slabs of stone a la Earthen Grasp. The earth elemental's much better at it than I am. We hold the creature down while Pyrrha pokes some massive holes into it. A moment later, Jaune tries to attack, and fails miserably. I absently Observe him, then realize that the idiot doesn't seem to have any combat skills. How did he manage to get in? Whatever. I'm about to return my focus to the Death Stalker when Roc quickly sends me a warning to grab Weiss and get down. I launch myself at her, knocking us both over.

"You dunce!" she yells. "Why'd you- oh." I use Roc to get a good view of the stupid Nevermore that just tried to eat me, and then have her lightning bolt it. The bird fries nicely, but then goes after Roc.

I'm about to warn Pyrrha to break off, when I notice that Jaune already has. He shouts something, probably guessing I can hear it. While I can't, the elemental hovering next to him can, and relays it to me. "We need to get out of here and meet up with the others! We're having enough trouble with just one of them!"

"Agreed," I send back. I have leave Roc orders to harass the Nevermore and Gnome orders to harass the Death Stalker while the four of us beat a hasty retreat.

"I need to spend more time working on Aura Bolt" I mutter to myself as we find a cave to hide out in. The thing does more damage than Aura Arrow, despite only being level 5. Of course, Aura Arrow launches 8 arrows at once, but still. It's level 27, it really should be doing more damage by now. I put that aside as Weiss suddenly decides to confront Juane about his lack of any sort of combat skill.

"How did you get in here if you're so bad at fighting?" she demands. "Beacon isn't some ordinary starter combat school, it's where we go to learn how to fight monsters!"

"I am sure that he was simply caught off guard," Pyrrha says calmly. "Once he gets over-"

"No he wasn't," Weiss hisses. "He's level 3."

"Wait, how did you know that?" I demand. She glances at me in annoyance.

"Your semblance of course," she says, waving at the letters floating over their heads. My eyes widen, and I Observe her. Nope, she's still not the Gamer. So why can she... wait. I close out the viewcam-things of my elementals, and notice a small notification blinking. Leadership leveled up to 12 while I wasn't paying attention, and as of level 10, "Information you have obtained is now shared among followers." Well. That explains how she can see his level.

"Um, maybe one of you could explain what's going on?" Jaune asks, chuckling nervously.

"My Semblance lets me gather and share information really effectively," I explain, compressing everything down to the basics. "I can get an idea of your combat capabilities and everything just by looking at you. Levels are the fastest way to express this. Level 1 is your average person. Level 10 is an academy graduate from Signal. Pyrrha's level 13, I'm level 11, Weiss is level 10, you're level 3. That's the beginning of a second year at Signal. On the other hand, the Death Stalker is level 17, and the Nevermore's 16."

"What? He's even weaker than I thought!" Weiss complains. "So what's he doing here? He's obnoxious _and_ useless!"

Jaune opens his mouth to protest, only for Pyrrha to beat him to it. "He is not obnoxious!"

"I'm noticing that you're not quibbling about him being useless," Weiss growls.

"Can we please stop arguing?" I beg. "Look, my Semblance has some really weird side effects, and one of them is that if you kill something while under its effects, you get stronger really quickly, so let's just kill one of them, he'll get stronger, and then voila! We don't have anything to worry about."

"Don't I get a say in this?" Jaune protests.

"Of course-" Pyrrha begins, only to be interrupted.

"No! I want to live through this, get the relic, and get back, and I'm not having the dead weight of your dead body weighing us down," Weiss growls. "Ruby, are you sure your Semblance works like that? And it's instant?" Well, that's one way of saying you don't want anyone to die.

"Well... it does for me," I admit. "And I'm pretty sure it does for other people, but I haven't had a chance to _test_ it, per se."

"Look, I don't want it!" Jaune shouts, his voice louder than both of ours. "I'm not going to, to cheat my way to power!"

"Hey!" I protest. "That's my Semblance you're insulting!"

He ignores me. "If I can't do this on my own, there's no point!"

"If you _try_ to do this on your own, you'll be dead," Weiss growls.

"Wait, what's _this_?" I ask, suddenly realizing there's probably something I'm missing. "I mean, we're assigned partners upon entering the forest, though admittedly, not in the best way, and then we're going to get four person teams when we leave it. There's nothing to _do_ on your own."

"Except get everyone else killed," Weiss adds, apparently kinda stuck on the everyone dying thing.

"Perhaps we could all try calming down?" Pyrrha suggests. "Jaune, they have a point. If we have a quick way to bring you up to the power level the rest of us are accustomed to working at, there is no reason not to take it, especially in a situation between life and death. There is no room for pride in the life of a Hunter."

"... Wait. Really?" I blink at her. "Because I mean, if we're fine without pride, then why don't we just run away? I can just summon some more elementals, or open an empty Instant Dungeon or something. I don't know if they can follow us in, but I don't _think_ they can."

"We're not running away," Weiss declares. "We're killing the stupid things."

"... Wait. You can summon more elementals?" Jaune asks, apparently distracted from his anger by that. I nod, taking advantage of the lull. "So... why not summon a swarm of elementals and have them take out the Nevermore for us? Like that lightning one that you were fighting it with earlier? It did some damage, right? And then we can go finish off the Death Stalker the way we were fighting it before the Nevermore interfered."

"Oh, that's a good idea!" I decide. "Just lemme rest for a little bit first. I need my Aura to regenerate a bit; Roc and Gnome used up most of it when they were distracting them for our, uh, tactical retreat, and, oh hey, one of the baby ones found Yang! I should tell her about the Death Stalker and the Nevermore so she doesn't get worried."

"I believe I might have misheard you," Pyrrha says after a moment. "Did you just say you want to tell someone about the Nevermore and Death Stalker so they _don't_ get worried?"

"Yup!" I say cheerfully, ordering mini-Roc to tell her. "She says to have fun, and call if we get into trouble!"

"We won't need to make that call," Weiss decides. "Ruby! Summon your elementals! Show that bird what you're capable of! I'll help Pyrrha with the Death Stalker!"

"Okay, just gimme a minute..." I quickly invite Jaune and Pyrrha. "Here. This will let us keep track of each other's health and aura and stuff. You can also check your own ability scores by thinking _status_ to yourself."

While they do that, I dismiss my remaining elementals. The small boost of recharge speed is still helpful. "I need two minutes," I order them. "I'm switching into a meditative trance to rebuild my Aura faster. After that, I'll help you on the offense."

"We can wait two minutes," Jaune says, sitting down. I sink into my meditative trance as he begins talking to the others. "So... what's she talking about? I thought Aura was just a force field?"

"That is the simplest use of it," Pyrrha explains. "Simply reinforcing the body in some manner. However, it is most commonly catalyzed through dust into an elemental form. This can be used to strengthen our weapons, fire bullets, or otherwise wreak harm upon our targets. However, what Ruby does is different. She shapes her Aura into a weapon directly, spending the light of her soul to strike at the darkness without any medium. Her Aura Arrow technique is an old one, developed from before we found Dust. Although relatively uncommon, due to the high skill required in order to even match a more mundane dust weapon, it is not considered "lost" like her elemental summonings. The elemental summons, on the other hand, I am afraid I know little about."

"Oh." I can practically hear Jaune's sad look.

"I suppose I can help out here." Weiss's voice sounds a bit grudging. "I wasn't able to attend the lectures, but I did manage to get my hands on some notes. Apparently, an elemental is contracted in two steps. The first is constructing an affinity within your soul. That is, modifying your soul to be closer to an element through extreme concentration and meditation upon the nature of that element. After your nature matches the element enough, you can construct a summoning circle, and call forth the elemental. By invoking an ancient pact, they agree to serve you, and in return, you sustain them with your Aura."

"So it's a deal?" he confirms. "Just promising to feed the element bits of your Aura, and in return, they help you fight?"

"As far as my notes indicated, yes." Weiss nods. "But the student I get them from wasn't really the best, so I'd suggest taking that with a grain of salt."

"What happens if you try to make a contract without sufficient... elementyness?"

"If your affinity isn't strong enough, they won't appear, but if it's fake, they'll attack you for trying to trick them," I say without opening my eyes. "I'm at about 30%. If I stay in the trance, I can probably send a couple elementals out now, and sustain them long enough to hurt the Nevermore pretty badly, even if I don't kill it."

"So long as the Nevermore does not interfere, I believe Weiss and I will be able to handle the Death Stalker," Pyrrha confirms.

"Jaune." I can practically feel her glaring at him. "You'll be watching for interference. Don't bother trying to interfere, don't try to help. But if the Nevermore's coming, and Ruby's elementals all went down, or if there's something we don't see coming because we're too close, or _whatever_, warn us. You can do that much at least, can't you?"

"S-sure thing, Snow Angel!"

"If you call me that one more time, I'm going to shove Myrt-"

"Ready!" I announce, interrupting them. "Roc, Roc the Second! You two take out the Nevermore!" I summon a third, slightly weaker one as well, then possess that directly, following the first two into the fight. The three of us quickly ascend to meet the massive bird, which begins by shooting feathers at us. After some rather epic dodging, if I say so myself, we return fire with massive bolts of electricity. The Nevermore shrieks, then apparently decides long range is a bad idea, and swoops at us. We scatter, then begin taking turns harrying it. Luckily, due to my meditative state, we're gaining about 632 energy per minute, so 10.5 per second. On the other hand, each bolt of lightning only costs us about 3. With three of us, that means that we're actually losing slightly less aura than we're gaining. Things are going pretty well until I'm suddenly forced awake and out of my trance. "I was bus...y." My yell dies in my throat as I look at the figure in front of me.

It's tall. That's not important. Its skin is made of shadows. That's kinda important, but not too much. Lots of people look like that when the light is bad. Instead of a face, it has a bone white mask streaked with red. That's pretty important. But its name? That's the most important. Because it's name, title, and level are "Ancient Grimm. ?, Level ?"

**A Quest has Been Created  
****Survive the conversation.  
****Rewards: ?, ?, 25,000 EXP.  
****Failure Penalty: Death.  
****Duration: This Conversation.**

"I would speak with you alone, false one," it hisses in a voice straight from my nightmares. "I will ask you questions. Why do you taste of flame and lightning and ice and water and metal and earth? Those who once did are dust in the wind. What are you? Why are you permitted to fake a soul when we are not? And if you do not fake it, why is it that when I taste you, I taste nothing but the void? And do you know where the Master is?"

"Wh-what?" I ask, my throat kinda dry, because there's a stupidly overleveled, really old grimm standing in front of me and asking questions, and I didn't know Grimm could talk!

It repeats the string of questions, and I decide that figuring out what's going on can wait until after I actually understand the questions, and the thing doesn't look like it wants to murder me. After all, if it can talk, it's probably reasonable, right?

"Um, I probably taste of, er, fire and lightning and wind and all of those because I made an affinity for those, so I could summon elementals. You know, make contracts with them and ask them to help me out? Like this!" I summon Argon between me and him, draining a level from the weakest elemental I'd summoned for the fight against the Nevermore. The creature in front of me glances at her, then looks back at me.

"How?" it demands. "Those who tasted of such are dead and dust, and no human has heard their words for hundreds of years."

"I... read a book?" I offer sheepishly.

"A book. A series of words imprinted onto the world. Yes. I understand," the creature decides. I refrain from pointing out that that's not exactly what a book is. "What are you?"

"... Human?" I ask, not really sure what it's asking.

"No you are not. You are a fake. A falsehood. A shadow, cast upon the world of some other creature. An empty shell, separated by the void, nothing but flesh around a false soul born of the elements and without emotions," the creature explains, explaining absolutely nothing.

"Well I don't know what to tell you." I shrug at it.

"Why are you-"

"Don't know," I say loudly, interrupting it before it can repeat the rest of its questions. "Actually, you probably know more than I do, so if you find out, could you tell me please?" The creature lets out a hiss of irritation, then turns and stalks outside. It returns a moment later, holding a dead rabbit. Poor bunny!

"Take an aspect of Death," it orders me. "Then summon forth the Servants of Grimm. I will forge the contract you have made with the spirits of the world, and I shall learn what you are and what you have done. And when I have done so, I shall forge a false soul, and create whatever tastes I desire." I stare at the rabbit, then at the Grimm. Then the rabbit.

"Um.., it'll take a while. Like, a quarter of a year. At least," I finally say. "And I'm not even sure it's actually possible. Can't you just generate yourself inside the Instant Dungeon or something?"

"Demonstrate," it orders me.

"Okay, okay," I mutter. "You don't have to be so pushy." I invite it into the party, then create the instant dungeon. I vaguely wonder what the others are thinking, before disregarding it. Then I wonder how the heck the invitation worked. Isn't it a ridiculously large number of levels above me? According to the now working title and levels, yes, yes it is, being _level 267. _And having the title "Ancient One." Okay, that's terrifying. Oh, wait, it's talking. Worry about this stuff later.

"Yes. I can appear here before the Fake," it decides. It turns its burning orange gaze on me, then nods. "I will learn from the fake, and I will find the Master and I will forge a false soul like the Fake has done." It turns and leaves, leaving me with a notification, and the feeling that it insulted me. Somehow I can't be bothered to care. Maybe because a _Grimm just spoke to me._ I think I'm going into shock. Wake me up when the universe starts making sense again.

* * *

"Ruby? What happened?" I wake up to see Weiss in front of me, looking worried. "We were fighting the Death Stalker, and suddenly your elementals stopped fighting as smoothly. The Nevermore took them out, and then your semblance claimed there was someone called _Ancient Grimm_ in the party. After a brief moment of panicking about that, it deactivated. So what happened?"

"You know how Grimm get smarter when they get older?" I said, kinda dreading how I was going to finish this sentence.

"... You mean there was _actually _a Grimm in the party?" Jaune looks properly horrified when he asks that.

"Yeah... We had a talk. It's very creepy, and please tell me we can go home now, because I have no idea what to do, and I need to talk with Yang and Uncle Qrow and Professor Ozpin and-" I feel myself beginning to panic again, before a wave of calm washes over me. "Right. Anyway. Did you guys get the relics?"

"We weren't going to leave you here alone and probably dead!" Weiss protests. "The last thing we saw was the Grimm in the party, and then everything turning off! I mean, we thought it knocked you unconscious or something!"

"Aw!" I give her a happy smile. "Well, I'm okay. Let's just get the relic and finish this first, and then worry about this stuff."

The others give me concerned looks as I get up, but I ignore them in favor of turning in the quest, and assigning my stat points. For once, I decide to dump all fifteen, born of 3 whole levels, into Wisdom. Aura regen shoots up to 116, and I focus on the notifications that follow.

**Through communication with the Ancient Grimm, you have earned the title Herald of Shadows.  
****Through communication with the Ancient Grimm, you have discovered more about yourself. Your greater knowledge of the self has resulted in an additional point of Wisdom.  
****A new Story Line has been created.  
****Find out about the Master  
****The Ancient Grimm has mentioned that it is searching for a being known as the Master. Learn more about this mysterious figure.  
****Rewards: 25,000 exp, +1 to Int.  
****Failure Penalty: None**

Okay, so Aura regen's 119. Not about to complain about that. I close the notifications, and we move on, the others questioning me about exactly what happened as we walk. After about half an hour, we arrive at the Temple, where Yang, Blake, and a couple others whom I don't know are all waiting.

"Yang! Blake!" I shout gleefully.

"Ruby!" Yang shouts back, grinning at me.

"Hey." Blake waves, a bit calmer.

"Nora!" The other girl suddenly yells, striking a pose. I look up at her name. Nora Valkyrie, Mighty Warrior, Level 10.

"Uh... isn't that your name?" I ask, somewhat confused.

"Yes it is!" she agrees. "How did you know that? Gasp! Did you break our code of tree sloth calls? But I don't think I said my name. Unless I did in _Sloth!_" I decide to ignore the rest of her ramble in favor of stopping Weiss from telling on me to Yang and darn it, too late.

"Wait, what?" Yang asks, looking incredibly confused. "How can you talk to a Grimm? They're all mindless monsters, right?"

"We believe this one was rather old," Pyrrha comments. "Judging from Ruby's explanation on our way here, it simply... grew into its intelligence. Grimm grow stronger and wiser as they age, is it any surprise that it does not stop before it attains human levels?"

"Also, it's level 200 and something," I add in. "It's beyond ridiculously powerful. I'm just happy it didn't try to eat me."

"We're telling Headmaster Ozpin about it," Yang decides. "In the meantime, you guys need to get your relics. After that we might as well all head back together!"

"Okay!" I say cheerfully, heading over to the group of chess pieces. "Ooh! I want a knight!"

"Sure," Weiss says with an uncaring shrug.

"Awesome!" Yang cheers. "We grabbed one of those as well."

"I'll grab a rook, I guess," Jaune decides, glancing at Pyrrha to see if she has any objections. Seeing that she doesn't, he grabs one, shoving it in his pocket. I shove my piece into my inventory. No way I'm going to worry about losing it.

"Wait, what was that?" Weiss asks, narrowing her eyes at me.

"What?" I look at her in surprise.

"What you just- I thought your semblance was information based. What did you do with that chess piece?"

"Oh, information's just part of it. I mean, it's the main part, but the Semblance also does other stuff, like making it so that when I kill a grimm it usually drops loot. The thing you just saw was my inventory. Basically, well, my Semblance is called 'The Gamer' and it lets me treat my life like a video game!"

"Wait, so is that why the dead Grimm turned into a pair of books, half a ton of Lien, and a couple random bits of junk?" Jaune asks, his eyes widening in surprise.

"Yup!" I say cheerfully. "Speaking of which, when we split the loot, I call dibs on the books! They're probably skill books, so I can use my Semblance to learn the skills instantly. Oh, and hand me the other things that dropped, I'll tell you what they do."

"What they _do?_" Weiss asks, her voice incredulous. "You mean, they dropped, what, magic items? This is ridiculous! This is real life, not some video game!"

"I beg to differ!" I say, fake-snobbishly. "But seriously! Gimme!"

"Oh, uh, here." Jaune pulls off his backpack, and how did I not notice that? "I've been carrying it because, um..." He gives Weiss a somewhat scared look as he trails off. She gives him a very cold look in return.

"As the one most suited towards directing a fight instead of being within it, we decided that it'd be best for him to hold on to the weapons," Pyrrha says diplomatically. "His strategic skills are rather noteworthy."

"That's... true. He did manage to help us coordinate the two creatures against one another when your elementals disappeared," Weiss admits grudgingly, her glare softening a bit.

"Anyway. Yeah, here's the stuff." He hands me the bag, and I pull it open. There's the two skill books, both of them actual text books. The first one teaches Stoneskin, which I already have, while the second teaches a skill called Fatal Feathers. Huh. Isn't that a card? A quick observe informs me that it's basically an Air based version of my Aura Arrows, though stronger. It also has the prerequisite of 25 int and 15 dex. I've got the int, but not the dex. I move on and take a look at the other items they found. The first is a bracelet that increases stamina by 30%. So that's pretty good for anyone who uses Stamina a lot. The second is a small dagger that increases damage dealt with it by 10%, or 30% if your target can't see you. And the last two are completely normal daggers. I quickly explain all of this to the others.

"Do the items work for anyone other than you?" Weiss asks doubtfully. Yang nods, pulling out the mask we got from the Beowulf in the Instant Dungeon.

"Yeah. I checked, and while I wear this, I hit a lot harder, and I can go a lot longer," Yang explains.

"Oh! I want the bracelet!" Nora suddenly says. I let out a yelp, falling backwards a bit, having completely forgotten about her. "That way I can smash people more often!"

"Uh, sure?" I say, glancing at the others. "If no one else does?"

They all shake their heads, letting her have it. She slips it on, then starts singing absently. We shrug, and begin our trek back.

* * *

When we arrive, Ozpin collects our relics, then drags me away from the others, to his office. "I must admit, that you are one of the more unique people to grace Beacon's halls," he says calmly. "Beyond resurrecting ancient techniques long lost, you are now among the first to have spoken with a Creature of Grimm."

"Heh, yeah... Wait, how did you know about that?" I ask, blinking in surprise.

"We were watching," he says, giving me a look. "The entire point of this exercise was to gain a grasp of your combat capability and evaluate your leadership potentials. That would be rather difficult to do if we were unable to see the events as they occurred. No, I would like to ask you a few questions about the nature of your Semblance."

"Okay," I say, somewhat nervously.

"First, what exactly can it do?" he asks. "I need a full description of all of its capabilities, so we can find out exactly why this Ancient Grimm is coming after you."

"Right." I take a breath, and then describe my semblance in as much detail as I know. Which, admittedly, isn't that much.

"I see," he says thoughtfully. "Very well. I thank you for your assistance, Miss Rose. Do you have any questions you need to ask immediately?"

"Um... what should I do about the Grimm?" I ask cautiously.

"Is there anything you _can_ do?" His own voice is calm. "Try to avoid allowing it to speak with you unless your uncle Qrow is there as well. When you do, attempt to avoid antagonizing it. We simply do not know enough about their kind for me to make any further suggestions. I would, though, appreciate if you gave me transcripts of any conversations. Oh, and Ruby, before I forget, Dr. Oobleck has asked that you be granted a formal apprenticeship with him. If you accept, your schedule will be slightly different from that of your teammates. Would you like to accept?"

"Of course!" I say cheerfully. He nods, making a note. A moment later, I get a notification of a title, but quickly close out of it.

"Now my next question was about these titles of yours." He peers at me over his glasses. "More specifically, this 'Herald of Shadows.' You mentioned that it reduces your Aura to 0, but also grants you the ability to take a Grimm Form. I would like to see if we can test this at some point, if that is alright?"

"Uh, sure," I decide after a moment of thought. "Better to know what it does, right?"

"Good." He gives me a faint smile before continuing. "I believe that was everything of importance. Teams will be chosen after dinner, so for now, I suggest you have a meal, and recover from your initiation."

"Oh, thanks!" I say cheerfully, a bit relieved.

"You're welcome. And if you have any problems, feel free to come talk to me at any time."

I return to the dining hall, calling up Gnome to help me find Yang.

"Hey, Sis!" She calls me over as soon as she spots me. She has Weiss and Blake with her, probably because she knows she'll be on the same team as Blake, and because she knows I'll want to sit with her, but should also sit with my partner. She's nice like that. "What happened?"

"Headmaster Ozpin told me not to talk to it without Uncle Qrow there, asked if I wanted a formal apprenticeship with Professor Oobleck, and told me that he wanted to help me test the effects of one of my titles."

"Wait, you have an apprenticeship?" Weiss looks surprised. "How did you get that?"

"I rediscovered Elemental summoning." I beam at her.

"What?" She looks completely stunned. "Wait, that was _you_?"

"... Should I feel offended?" I wonder. "But yeah, that was me! No one else managed to construct an affinity yet, so I'm pretty much the only elemental user for now. My friend Sterling was getting pretty close last time I checked though, so he should have one by the end of the year. Professor Oobleck says that once that happens we'll probably get a lot more people trying to learn it, since they'll have proof that it's not a Semblance."

"That's... rather impressive," she admits. "Wait! Can you teach me? I want to have an ice elemental!"

"Sure!" I say agreeably, "It's not that hard to learn the idea behind it, it's just really hard to actually do, because creating an affinity's really tiring, and takes a long time."

The rest of the meal passess more quietly, the three of them still a bit tired from the trip through the forest. After we end our meals, Headmaster Ozpin calls everyone to the auditorium to form the teams. After a bunch of people I don't know, I realize that Yang, Blake, Weiss, and I are all going to be on the same team! Yes! My Luck of 8 must have... wait, 8's actually kinda bad for my level. Huh. I'm not really sure how this happened.

**Your good fortune has lead to an increase in Luck.**

Aaaand neither is my semblance. On the other hand, luck up! Awesome! I'm still not really sure what that stat does! I should probably figure it out at some point. I know it helps with criticals or something, but I've never actually seen a critical...

Oh! Us now! We quickly get up on stage, and I'm a bit distracted by our pictures swirling on the giant screens, but I focus when the Headmaster begins speaking.

"And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!" Wait, what? Why am I the leader? I'm the youngest! Is this because I have the leadership skill? Because all that does is give a stat boost to my Followers, it doesn't actually have much to do with, you know, leading. And I don't think I actually have to lead to grant that bonus, it's more of a Bard thing, where I can just stand there and everyone gets boosted.

"I'm so proud of you!" Yang says happily, hugging me. I hug her back automatically.

"Thanks," I manage to get out through my shock. A wave of calm washes over me, and a notification pops up.

**You have entered Beacon Academy! Your life as a Huntress in Training has begun! What adventures await?  
****The Storyline, Rising Darkness, has advanced.  
****Story Quest:  
****You have begun your days at Beacon Academy. While much of your time will be taken up by classes, you will also retain significant amounts of free time. Find the secrets that the school hides, explore it's halls, join clubs, strengthen the bonds between your teammates, and make new friends! But make sure not to get into too much trouble.  
****Rewards: 15,000 exp, 25,000 Lien, Academic Skills  
****Failure Penalty: Expulsion from Beacon Academy.  
****Duration: 1 Semester.**

... Wait, the story line is called Rising Darkness? That's ridiculously ominous! As we get off the stage, I quickly start looking through my Story section of the Quests menu. There are two main Stories that are active right now. Rising Darkness, which is the main one, and then Return of the Lost, which is the one with the Ancient Grimm, or more specifically, finding out more about his master.

I quickly check for anything else ominous-looking. The main place to find that sort of thing is the Titles screen, with a bunch of potential new titles.

**The Lost: +50 Str, +50 Vit, Int is set to 1, Wis is set to 1. Lose yourself to a Grimm form.  
****Encroaching Darkness: -10 Luck, +20 Espionage skills. Destroy Beacon Academy.  
****Herald of the End: +3 to all stats. Destroy Vale.  
****The Pale Rider: +100% damage, -5 Vit, Grimm Form. Kill 500 innocents while in Grimm form.  
****Servant of the Shadows: +10 Str, -5 Wisdom, Aura -100%. Swear allegiance to the Master.  
****The Master: Gain the allegiance of the Grimm. Become the Master.**

... Well this can't end well. On the other hand, there's some nicer sounding titles as well!

**Bastion of Light: +1 Int per level. Become Headmaster of Beacon Academy.  
****Savior: Increase Closeness with the various citizens of Vale. Save Vale from destruction.  
****Torchbearer: +1 Wis per level. Found a new city.**

And then there's the more neutral ones, some of which I have no idea where my Semblance got the idea for.

**Historian: Observe grants more information, and makes suggestions based on historical precedent. Have a History skill of 50.  
****Soulless: Aura cannot be awakened, because you have no soul. This title cannot be removed. Have no soul.**

Of course, I'm not going to be getting any of these any time soon, but they're still pretty interesting. Oh well, I'll worry about all of this tomorrow. Tonight, I'm going to get my stupid passive boost skills past the stupid 30 mark.

* * *

AN:

Blargh. Another short chapter. Anyway, onto notes.

On Weiss: Without having a bias against Ruby, and in fact, having a bias toward her (Elemental user!), Weiss isn't blowing up at her, and is more inclined to take her and her suggestions seriously. Their lack of getting into a fight where Ruby screws her up, and Ruby's own lack of needing to prove herself helps keep that particular relationship a lot less on Weiss's tsun side. On the other hand, Jaune's incompetent. Jaune is _blatantly_ incompetent, and Ruby's Semblance is explaining _exactly_ how incompetent he is, in an area where incompetence can get you killed, and get your friends killed as they try to rescue you. Hell, Jaune's _title_ is the False Knight. Weiss is pretty much as against him from the start as she is against Ruby at the start. Actually, more so, because he's also acting, well, like Jaune, and annoying her. The difference is that Ruby quickly demonstrates her talents, while Jaune's both incompetent and unwilling to accept the help needed to become competent. Weiss is definitely justified in her annoyance.

Ancient Grimm: I regret nothing. I've been foreshadowing him since the first nightmare.


	8. Chapter 8: Classes and Criminals

Chapter 8

"Hey, hey Weiss!" I poke her on the side. "Weiss! Weiss! Weiss! I'm going to drop a bucket of water on your head! It's not working." I pout at Yang. "I told you I should have used the whistle!"

"Hey, it's not my fault your forgot to get one last time you went out," Yang says, smirking at me. "And are you sure you don't want to dump water on her head?"

"That would be an effective way to wake her up," Blake comments.

I keep pouting- I mean, uh, glaring fearsomely. Very fearsome. "That would be mean!" I explain.

"Blowing a whistle into her ear wouldn't be?" Blake wonders.

"Nah, that's kinda bad, but dumping a bucket of water onto someone's head? That's cold. Why you could even say it's... Weiss cold. Eh? Eh?"

"Stop trying to pin your bad puns on other people," I say, then turn back to Weiss. "Ugh, what are we going to do? Class is in a couple hours, and we need to finish decorating first, and if she doesn't wake up soon, we might end up being late~!" My voice gets a bit whiny near the end.

"Wait, what?" Weiss shoots up, wide awake. "What's going on? What are we late to?"

"Yay, you're awake!" I cheer. "Come on! We need to get our room set up before class begins!"

"... Why wouldn't we set it up afterward?" Weiss asks, still blinking the sleep out of her eyes.

"Because we might lose something," I explain. "I mean, haven't you ever reorganized your room? You can never find anything afterward!"

"Is that why you never clean your room then?" Yang asks teasingly.

"... Anyway! Come on! Let's get everything set up!" I tug her out of bed, and she reluctantly begins helping. A cleaning montague later, we've got all our stuff set up, the work having gone a lot faster with the six earth elementals I summoned to help out.

"What should we do about the beds?" Weiss asks as we realize there isn't enough room for all four of them. "This isn't exactly a good way to keep them." This being a giant pile in the middle of the room.

"How about bunk beds?" Yang proposes. "They're awesome!"

"They do seem efficient..." Blake muses.

"That sounds incredibly dangerous," Weiss protests.

"How is it dangerous?" I ask, slightly confused. "We'll just go buy new bunks. It's not like we're short on cash, and if we need more, I can just open an Instant Dungeon and we can go beat up some Ursa! Wait, if we're beating things up for money, does that make us bullies?"

"No, that's only if you threaten to do so," Blake corrects me, completely straight faced. "When you actually do it, you're an adventurer. Or a hero, depending on who asks."

Weiss snorts. "Yeah, that sounds about right." Her voice is a bit bitter, but she quickly covers it up. "So what time does class begin again?"

"10," I say immediately. I made sure to check how long we'd have.

"Oh, good. We have about half an hour then," Weiss says, nodding to herself. "We can deal with getting bunk beds afterward. In the meantime, let's get cleaned up."

I smirk at her, opening my inventory, and equipping my uniform. In a flash of light straight out of a magical girl anime, I'm dressed for class. "Gamer's Body skill," I say smugly. "Plus I don't sweat. Or get dirty. It's awesome."

A few angry mutters later, we're at class. It's boring. Very boring. So as per usual, I spend the time doing something more interesting. In this case, I summon Gnome and Roc and have them explore. Of course, I manage to drag my attention back when Professor Port brings out a cage.

"So!" He announces grandly. "Which of you believes yourself to be an embodiment of these traits?" Wait, what traits?

Weiss raises her hand, and Professor Port waves at the cage. "Well then, let's find out!"

I immediately send her an invite. She gives it an offended look, so I quickly summon another copy of Gnome to rush over to her and hiss in her ear for me. "I know you don't need the stat boosts, but this'll let us see if you guys can gain exp while under my semblance. Plus it lets you keep track of what's working and what isn't, and check out how powerful it is and stuff!"

She settles down when she realizes that I'm not trying to claim she needs the boost from my ability, and nods gratefully. The fight goes somewhat badly at first, and I have to keep from distracting her with encouragement. Aura's hard enough to manipulate, and fights are the last place you want someone uninvolved shouting at you. She manages to turn things around quickly though, making good use of the information I Observe from the beast in order to judge exactly how much she can take. I let out a surprised cry the first time she lets it hit her just to score her own strike, as do most of the others, but her smug smile, that absolute _confidence_ that she was going to be fine keeps us from doing anything further. And she is. Her aura takes most of the blow, and she slices through its stomach. It's a glancing wound, but it confirms that its "Limited Carapace" ability is restricted to the top of it. Her next sacrificial strike takes it out.

"That was awesome!" I shout cheerfully as she returns to her seat. "Oh! Did you get any EXP?"

"Yeah, not much though." She sounds kinda put out. "Is it because it was a low level?" I nod.

"Probably. It had unusually high defenses though," I comment. "Otherwise it wouldn't have slowed you down so much."

She smirks as she collects her things. The class ends, and the four of us return to our dorm. Professor Oobleck's class isn't for a while, and even though I'd normally have to be there before the others, being his apprentice, they haven't gotten my schedule worked out yet. It's just odd for them because I'm his apprentice for reasons completely unrelated to a knowledge of history. I take the opportunity to order the bunks, then realize I don't have anything to do. Hm... Oh, I know!

"So! We should go to an Instant Dungeon!" I announce. "That way we can get some practice working together!"

"A what?" Weiss and Blake both look lost.

"It's awesome," Yang informs them. "She basically brings us to an alternate dimension that looks exactly the same, but it's full of Grimm for us to fight. And once we kill enough of them, a big boss grimm shows up. And he'll usually drop something pretty nice."

"I for one, wouldn't mind checking it out," Blake admits. "It seems like it'd be a good place for us to train more effectively than in sparring. We are learning how to fight Grimm, after all, not each other."

Weiss thinks it over for about half a second before nodding. "I'm in."

I grin, and open the Dungeon. My level in IDCreate is a lot higher than it used to be, so now I can bring out things from Ursas up to Deathstalkers and Nevermore. I absently note that there's an option called "Ancient Grimm". I ignore it for now, deciding on Ursa instead. They're the closest to our level, according to the small description off to the side. The dungeon instantiates itself, and reality is rewritten. About three seconds later, an Ursa knocks down the door. Our panicked response results in the whole wall going missing.

"I think we went a bit overboard, sis." Yang grins at me. I grin back, and we all begin to move.

Fighting as a team is interesting. I know we did it before in the Emerald Forest, but it's different now. The four of us know we'll be working together until we graduate from Beacon. We're actually trying to learn each other's moves, learn when not to get into each other's way. Weiss fights mechanically. Precisely. She uses her abilities like a scalpel, inserting herself into the midst of her enemy and cutting them apart. Yang's like a bomb, explosive and powerful, but imprecise. Wherever she goes, there's carnage, but she's not good at worrying about the exact location of her allies. On the other hand, she's very good at taking hits. We put her up front, she draws attention, then tears everything apart. Blake's maelstorm. She's a whirlwind, her Gamble Shroud cutting through anyone nearby as she shadowdodges any attack that might hit her. While the style's good for taking out large numbers, the reliance on moving to avoid blows makes it harder for her to hold the line. And me? I'm the living artillery. I stand back, and rain Aura arrows on our opponents, or if one's being particularly annoying, I snipe it with an Aura Bolt. I think these are homing or something though, because no matter how many I aim at, they never seem to miss.

The Ursa drop different stuff from the Beowolves of my lower-level Dungeon. Where those dropped a small bit of Lien, maybe a half-gram dust crystal, and the occasional tooth, these ones tend to drop a bit more Lien, 1 or even 2 gram Dust crystals, and claws.

By the time the Boss appears, we're used to fighting together, and Grizzly Murder isn't too unexpected. His title of Soulless, however, is. It's usually just found on the lesser ones, not the big bosses. A quick scan of his stats shows that he's definitely a tank type like Yang. Most Ursa are. Slow, strong, and not very agile in comparison.

"Yang, you keep him from attacking anyone," I order her. Se smashes her fists together, taking advantage of the blow to power up her Semblance. "Weiss, keep it pinned. Blake, same to you. I'll nuke it." I pull out Crescent Rose, and point her at the creature. My first two shots smash a pair of metal elementals into it's chest. "Yang, the metals are going to help you tank."

"Heh. I'll be fine." She grins. "And this'll be fun!" She launches herself in, taking the lead. She needs to take a few hits for her Semblance to power up though, and they still knock her around, leaving quick holes for the Ursa to take advantage of. That's when the elementals step in, serving as a living wall while Blake and Weiss swoop in. Before it can go after them, the elementals attack, grabbing it, and letting Yang attack again. I hang back, occasionally taking potshots with Mana Bolt. It works out pretty well, and the beast quickly collapses, its corpse turning into a skill book, some Lien, and a black Katana. The skill book turns out to be useless, giving a skill called Hibernate, and the Katana turns out to be decent but not something that any of us would be willing to replace our own precious weapons with, so we decide to just shove it into my inventory for now.

I close out the dungeon, then show everyone how to level themselves, since we've all leveled twice. I put all ten points into Int, then review my skills for anything that I should be working on. All my meditative skills, of course, but those are for the night. Aura Bolt shot up quickly, it's at level 13 now. So is Earthen Grasp. Bullet Hell, on the other hand, reached level 7, and when combined with my There Is No Overkill title, gives me about 13 arrows per use of Aura Arrow. It's pretty awesome. Add in my now level 7 Powerful Aura skill for the nice little damage boost, and I'm death in an awesome red package.

"We should get to our next class now," Blake comments as she closes out of her Status screen. I glance up in surprise, realizing that it is, in fact, time for class. We all get up, and shoot off. Class is... well, it's not boring, that's for sure. It feels like every other word gives me a new quest. Of course, in reality, the quests are actually kinda packed together. At one point, for example, he mentions the Lost City of Ignari. Which is, you know, not exactly new, but my Semblance gives me a quest asking me to find out about it. At another point, he rattles off a list of famous techniques, and I get a quest asking me to learn them. It's actually kinda overwhelming.

Class ends, and we head off to the next one. Physical conditioning. Professor Goodwitch is in charge here, and we mainly do exercises to help us with endurance. Eventually, a couple more classes later, the day comes to an end and we return to our dorm.

"So!" I say cheerfully. "Who wants to go questing?"

"What?" Weiss sounds surprised. "What about studying?"

"Nah, I don't need any points in Int right now," I say dismissively.

"I think she was asking about studying for class," Blake explains. I look at her blankly. "Because the rest of us can't just eat a book for information."

"Oh. Right. I forgot," I admit sheepishly.

"Don't worry sis, we can do things as a team on the weekends!" Yang says cheerfully. "But you should go get a head start on your quests on your own for now. You have a lot of them, right?"

"Yeah, that's true," I admit, pulling up my quest sheet. Most of the quests ask me to go visit far away, ancient places, so those are out for now, but once we've got a bit of practice and start shadowing Hunters, I might be able to convince Professor Oobleck to bring me on one. There's a couple still in Beacon though. One of them mentions that something got into the ventilation, and only gives 100 exp and 20 Lien, but hey, a quest's a quest. Another one is one of those "learn these techniques" quests, and all of the techniques in it are pretty well known, so I might want to head to the library. The third one however, is really interesting.

**Familiar Spirits**

**In ancient times, Grimm were considered to be normal animals, possessed by hostile spirits. Find out why the rumor was so prevalent.**

**Rewards: ?, 1000 exp, 500 Lien.**

**Failure Penalty: None.**

The quest popped up when Professor Oobleck was talking about how they used to think that Grimm were demons that could be exorcised. Since I had no idea about why, the best place to start was probably the library. For research. Ugh, I might as well have been studying or something, but I'd already absorbed the course books before class, so it wasn't like there was a point.

I spend a while and gain a point of Int reading through the actual books, before realizing that a) this sort of thing takes a lot more effort when I'm not just absorbing the books, and b) I'm not actually sure if the information's even in the books in the first place. I scowl at them, then move on to my scroll. To Google! And Google has failed me! Apparently, no one knows. Darn it. That means I'll need to go through a lot of trouble to find out the long way. Or... I could ask the Ancient Grimm! This seems like it'll be an utterly terrible idea, but I'm very tempted nonetheless.

No, no. I'm not that reckless. I sigh, leaving the library to go poke around and look for something to do. Ugh. So bored! I could work on my skills for a bit... but that wouldn't be very fun. Very practical though. Except most of my skills can't really be raised any further without hitting the stupid soft cap, and I'm going to be spending all night working on them. I could get some more skill books, but then I'd have even more skills to keep track of, and I'm pretty sure I've never even used about half the ones I know. Or I could try designing some on my own. I've got a feel for what my aura flows like when I activate a skill, modifying it wouldn't be too hard. Maybe I could turn my Aura Barrier into some sort of armor by wrapping it around someone? As I'm musing over this stuff, I run into Jaune.

"Oh, hi!" I say cheerfully.

"Hey. Ruby, right?" he asks, sounding nervous.

I nod. "Yup!"

"Right, right. Uh, listen. You, um, how did you summon those elementals?" he asks, sounding incredibly nervous and more suspicious than a man in a bank wearing a sock over his head.

"... I have a contract with them," I answer cautiously. "Which I made by having an affinity. Why?"

"Oh, uh no reason." He chuckles nervously. "It's just... we had sparring today, and I was thinking that it'd go easier if I had a bunch of elemental minions to serve as support."

"Well, if you really want to, I'm supposed to start teaching a class on summoning elementals once they get my schedule worked out." I shrug. "It's really hard though. You have to establish an affinity with an element, and the only one I know who managed to get even a lesser affinity I had to tutor personally for about a year."

"I'm willing to work hard!" he says quickly. "It's just... I'm not very good in a straight up fight, you know that! And even Weiss admitted that I was pretty good at tactics, so I was thinking that I could just use elementals and-"

"They can only get as strong as you are." I interrupt him. "So if you're level 3, the most powerful elemental you can summon is only level 3. And you start off only being able to summon one at a time."

"O-oh." He sounds kinda down.

"Why not just focus on what you're already using?" I ask curiously. "I mean, going sword and shield isn't exactly bad! All you have to do is turn your title from Fake Knight to just, you know, Knight!"

"Fake Knight?" He sounds even more depressed. I just wait patiently for him to answer. "And uh, Crocea Mors isn't the most... advanced of weapons. It's a hand-me-down you see. From back in The War. So it doesn't have any special abilities, or a gun built in or anything. The most that it does is have the sheath unfold into a shield!"

"I could imbue it with a Dust ability, if that's your main problem?" I offer cautiously. People are so _touchy_ about family heirlooms! As if anything can't be made better by adding a gun! And exploding rounds! And more blades! And shapeshifting! And spikes, lots of spikes. Well, okay, spikes tend to unbalance some things. But still. It's a sword and shield. Spikes will only help! That way when you hit a grim in the face with your shield, you can also stab them! Wait, there was something I was saying... right. "Or if you need a ranged attack, I can try and teach you Aura Bolt or Aura Arrow."

"Um, what are those two?" he asks, looking confused.

"Aura Bolt shoots a medium powered bolt of condensed Aura at your target at a high velocity," I rattle off, "while Aura arrow takes the same concept but shapes the bolt of aura into a number of small arrows, doing less damage per arrow, but giving a greater quantity of arrows."

"What?" He blinks at me in confusion.

"A big magic bullet or a bunch of small ones," I clarify. "It uses a decent amount of Aura, but you have a lot. And it's pretty much auto-hit as far as I can tell, well, unless your target's fast enough to dodge or something, so you don't really need to spend too much effort learning how to aim it."

"No, but thanks," he finally decides. "I want- no, I need to do this by myself."

"... didn't you just ask me how I summoned the elementals?" I ask, confused. "How is this different?"

"I didn't ask you to teach me how," he points out. "I just asked how you summoned them."

"So that wasn't a lead in to asking me to teach you?" I ask, unimpressed.

"Well, if you'd learned it from a book or something, I could learn it as well," he argues.

"No, I needed my Semblance too," I argue, then realize he probably wouldn't know that. "What is this about doing things by yourself anyway? You said that earlier as well, back in the forest."

"It's nothing," he says, sounding a bit nervous. "It's just, well, my whole family was made up of heroes, you know? And I want to be one too, and heroes don't get that way by leaning on others. Heroes are the ones who protect people, they're not being protected." I nod. I get that. I can respect that. I mean, it's not the smartest thing to do, but pride isn't exactly smart. And he's even more of an idiot for having a combat style that basically consists of "charge at your opponent" and using a shield and sword instead of a two handed blade or something where half the style _isn't_ absolute defense.

"I get it," I say sympathetically. "And I'm sure you'll come into your own with it soon!" Okay, that's a lie, but as he is now, he's definitely not going to listen to me until something happens to show him that it's a bad idea.

He smiles at me. "Thanks."

(I AM A LINE)

About a week passes along those lines. Classes happen, we go fight stuff for a bit, I look around in the library to try to make progress on my quest, then I get bored and go poke around for something to do. On the one hand, I make some progress on my passive skills during the nights. On the other hand, nothing important really gets done. And then Professor Oobleck gets my schedule finalized.

"Miss Rose!" he says dramatically as he zooms up to me. "We have your schedule finalized. You will be teaching class at 5:00 PM every friday, for one hour. I have also managed to obtain a number of skill books, which you will be learning with your Semblance, and then teaching to the class. Furthermore, you will occasionally be joining me on expeditions to ancient cities to try and retrieve any lost knowledge. Do you understand?"

I nod nervously. "Um, when you say _I'll _be teaching, do you mean like-?"

He nods. "That's correct dear girl! I'll only be there to assist you if you need it, and to watch over you as you teach."

Oh. I was afraid of that. Wait. "Hold on, did you say 5 PM every friday?" I ask cautiously. He nods. "It's 4:30 right now!" I protest.

"Well not today, of course." He waves it off. "How would any of the students know to attend? No, you have no need to be teach today. It starts next week." He zooms off.

Oh, that's... better, I guess. I mean, now I've got a whole week to worry about it! Gah! What am I going to do? I should ask Yang! Or Weiss! Or Blake! Someone!

**A Quest has Been Created**

**Classes to Teach**

**Plan for your first class as an Apprentice to Dr. Oobleck.**

**Reward: 500 exp**

**Failure Penalty: None**

**Duration: 1 week.**

Thanks, Semblance. Thanks. I grumble a bit, but return to my room to plot. "Oh, hey, sis!" Yang says as she runs into me. "There you are! Did you know there's a sparring club here too?"

"Really?" I perk up a bit. While fighting grimm is decent exercise, I tend to drop out of the dungeon when too many high leveled ones appear, because I can only kill so many of them at a time. I need to pick up some skills that affect large areas.

"Yeah! Come on! Let's go!" We both share a grin and make our way there. It's mostly upper years, and the fights are pretty awesome. There's this girl who has a flame sword that turns into a rocket launcher, and she totally beats up this other guy who focuses on knife-pistols. After a few matches, I get called up to fight this one guy with a battle-axe and armor. He's level 14, so a couple levels lower than me. A couple Observes gives me an idea as to his capabilities, and I open with a barrage of Aura Arrows. He takes them, rushing forward to try to take me out as fast as possible.

Not exactly agreeing with this idea, I summon two versions of Argon and have them hold him back. As metal elementals, they're really resistant to his attacks, and hold him while I pepper him with Aura Arrows. He finally manages to take one of them out, then starts shooting at me. I activate Stone Skin, then wrap an Aura Barrier around myself, unlocking the Aura Armor skill. Which costs me 250 Aura per minute and only gives me 86 extra effective HP. Seriously? Ugh. This had better level up effectively, or I'm never going to have an use for my first original technique!

I drop the Aura Armor for now, switching to a normal Aura Barrier, then remind him that I'm still here by shooting him with a Metal Elemental. He raises his axe, presumably to block the attack. Of course, having half a ton of metal elemental smack straight into his face _probably_ wasn't what he was expecting, especially when it's followed up by a nice 13 exploding aura arrows that the elementals dematerialize their way out of. I love my 'There is No Overkill' title.

That's enough to push his Aura down to 25%, so the announcer calls the match. I return to my seat, then sigh at Yang. "On the one hand, I learned a new skill, so that's good. On the other hand, the skill is terrible."

"Eh, it'll get better, right?" Yang asks optimistically.

"It'd better," I grumble.

Only a short while later, I get called up to another fight. Apparently, there's a bunch of different arenas, so even though we have more people over all, there's less people per arena to go through.

My opponents a big guy, with some pretty hefty armor and a big mace. "Cardin Winchester, Crusher, Level 15." He smirks at me, readying his weapon. I just ready the triggers in my mind, keeping Crescent Rose leveled.

Unlike the last guy, he doesn't rush forward immediately. I shoot him a few times for his trouble. He chooses to fight defensively, using his mace to literally try to smack some of the incoming attacks out of the air. It doesn't work out nearly as well for him as it did for Torchwick, which makes me feel a lot safer in my choices. If everyone could do that, ranged attacks would be useless, and I'd feel really silly, having an entire combat style built around them.

He does, however, manage to block enough of it that he manages to advance without too much harm. So this time I shoot him with a couple metal elements. Unfortunately, he learned from the previous guy's mistake and dodges them rather than trying to block. While he does manage to dodge the first, the second still catches him on the shoulder, sending him spinning a bit. His armor takes the worst of the blow though, so he quickly recovers and charges at me, ignoring the elementals. I drop an Aura Barrier in his face, then spam Aura Arrows as the elementals slam into him from behind. The Barriers are pretty tough now, taking significant concentrated effort to take down. Effort he can't afford with the elementals harassing him.

Finally, his aura drops, and the fight ends. I get the vague feeling that I've been using Summon Elemental too much, but quickly discard it. That's just silly. You can't use an ability too much.

I compete in five more fights after that, most of them going the same way, although I lose a couple when my opponent's ranged attacks manage to overwhelm my defenses. By the end of it, I'm feeling a lot less worried about the class to come. We return to our dorm. Weiss is studying, and Blake is reading a book that's definitely fiction, but my Semblance senses are claiming is a skill book.

"Hey, Blake," I ask curiously. "Is there a skill in there called Lightning Spear in there?"

She looks a bit confused as she looks up. "Yes. It's one of the first spells that the main character learns."

"And... do they describe how he uses it?" I continue. She nods.

"Huh. Do you think you could try it?" I ask again.

She blinks at me, "Ruby, the book is fictional. So are most of the techniques in it."

"I know!" I reply cheerfully. "But the book counts as a skill book for Lightning Spear, so I was wondering if you would be able to learn it even without my semblance, because I could totally learn it with my Semblance."

"Well, yellow Dust isn't exactly rare," Weiss interjects, apparently having been distracted from her studying by our conversation. "In fact, I have some with me right now. So if you need some to help catalyze your aura change to lightning, then I'd be fine loaning some to you."

"Oh, I've got some too!" I say, pulling a small pile of yellow Dust crystals out of my inventory. "Grimm drop them a lot, and I'm usually killing them while you guys are studying," I explain when I see the baffled looks on their faces. They nod in understanding.

An hour later, we're outside, trying to get the Lightning Spear to work. Five minutes after that, team JNPR joins us. Two hours later, we're all standing in front of Headmaster Ozpin, avoiding his eyes as we refuse to explain why there are a giant penguin made of metal, two dozen ice sculptures of Nevermores, and an artificial volcano where the grounds used to be. On the other hand, Aura Armor's at level 15, Observation hit level 32, and the new Lightning Spear skill is at level 11. Also, I leveled. Yay!

"Would you at least be willing to explain the tiger?" he asks calmly as he sips his tea. Wait, tiger?

"What tiger?" I ask, looking up.

He inclines his head toward the window, and I look out. Oh. Hey, look, the cloud looks like a giant tiger! With black stripes on orange fur and everything! I wonder how that happened? I don't think we did anything like that. Was it Nora? I take a glance at her, but she seems just as confused as the rest of us, though significantly more excited. It's a good thing Ren keeps stopping her from saying anything, I'm pretty sure that last bit we did broke a few school rules.

"Hm." He stares at us calmly, then shrugs. "Well, as long as you clean things up, I doubt we'll have any problems, especially since no one was injured. And even more so if you were to submit an essay on how exactly this was managed."

Cleaning things up is a pain and a half, especially since my Semblance taunts me by giving me a bunch of new skills like "Sweeping" and "Polishing". On the bright side, Nora and I had a fun little competition where we blew up all the statues so they could be taken down more effectively! So that was fun. And at the end of it, to get over how boring that was, our team goes and does an Instant Dungeon. A level and some skill ups later, we exit, not having managed to kill the boss this time.

So that takes up most of the weekend. The next week passes uneventfully, and my first class to teach finally arrives. It's, uh, a lot more full of people than I'd expected. I mean, who takes _more_ classes?

"H-hi!" I managed to squeak out at the large crowd of people. Stage fright paralyzes me for a second, and then I feel a wave of calm wash over me, and my prepared speech quickly flows into my mind. "So! First thing I'm going to be teaching you guys is how to construct an elemental affinity! Who here already knows what that is?" I spot Weiss in the crowd, and quickly amend my question. "Er, who doesn't already know me personally, because that's kinda unfair for everyone else."

A kid named Silpher raises her hand. "An affinity is an alignment of the aura towards a particular element," she says quietly. I nod.

"Right! Now doing that's really hard. Like, _really_ hard. And also, it's not really something I can help you with much beyond getting you started, so that's not what we're going to be doing _all_ year. Instead, for the rest of the year, we're going to be learning 'Lost' aura manipulation techniques! Mainly, these are techniques that don't use any Dust. They're generally supposed to be weaker than the equivalent Dust abilities, which can be boosted by spending more Dust than the minimum -" Wait, what? Seriously? Huh. My knowledge of the skills says yes, but I've never actually _tried_ it. I need to do that once this is over. "- but they make up for that by being usable as long as you have Aura! And since when you're stuck out in the wild, it's easier to wait for your Aura to restore itself than it is for you to get ahold of more refined Dust, it's usually a good idea to know one or two. Um, any questions thus far?"

"Will this include your Aura Arrows?" one of the students asks, obviously one who's seen me fight. So probably either in my class, or a fellow member of the sparring club.

"Yup! Aura Arrows is a pretty hard one though. It's really weak, and it doesn't really get very useful until you're used to it, since until that point, you just send one or two really weak aura arrows at your target. After you're skilled though, you can send more and more," I say cheerfully. "Oh! I'll also be teaching stuff like Dust Imbuement, so you can learn how to make Dust Storage shirts for your personal use. It's a bit hard though, so try not to, you know, try it outside of class. Dust has this weird tendency to blow up if you sneeze on it." I hear a couple chuckles from the class, and relax a bit. Someone raises his hand, and I call on him.

"Yeah?" I ask.

"Uh, this isn't quite related, but may I know why we've got a first year teaching this?" he asks cautiously.

I shrug. "Oh, Dr. Oobleck took me as an apprentice, and teaching's what apprentices are supposed to do. Apparently. Also, I'm really awesome at this sort of stuff! Look!" I wave, summoning and manifesting all six of the elementals I'm contracted with, though all at level 1. "Aren't they awesome?" I grin cheerfully at the class. "Anyway, we should get started. You guys are going to need a piece of... whatever you're planning on building an affinity to. So if you want to make an earth affinity, get some dirt, I've got some in this box here," I have Gnome pick up the box full of dirt, "or some metal or whatever, each of the elementals will be holding some samples of their type, so feel free to come up and grab some! Once everyone has something to meditate on, I'll get started."

"Are there any differences between the elementals to keep in mind?" one of the students asks.

"Um, earth elementals are a pretty good mix between offense, defense and mobility, but they're kinda slow. They can just walk through the ground though. Metal elementals are really tough and punch pretty hard, but don't do much special stuff. Lightning elementals are fast, can fly, and can possess electronics. Ice elementals are like earth elementals, but colder. Fire elementals have a lot less strength and health, but they burn stuff pretty well. And water elementals are really mobile since they can turn into puddles," I explain.

A few minutes later, everyone has something to meditate on, some of them having pulled things out of their pockets. "Now we'll begin." I clap my hands, and have Roc dim the lights. "Now, I need you to close your eyes. Reach out with your aura, feel for the object in front of you. See what it feels like, and try to emulate that. The rigid, solidity of stone, the fluidity of water, the speed and volatility of electricity, the eternal hunger of fire. Imbue that within yourself, your very soul. Rewrite yourself, and take on aspects of it." I let my voice turn softer as I speak, not wanting to distract them. After about half an hour, I can tell that everyone's starting to get tired, so I clap and have Roc turn the lights back on.

"Okay! So most of you guys got that. That's great! Now just try and do that again each night before bed. If you're not sure how you're doing, just come talk to me, and I'll help you through it. Now let's get started on the more obscure uses of Aura."

I began to talk. And talk. And talk. It made me really thirsty. Is this why Dr. Oobleck always carries around a thermos full of... coffee? I think it's coffee. I'm pretty sure his thermos doubles as a flamethrower, so that's actually probably not true. Anyway, pretty soon, the hour long class comes to an end, and I get to kick everyone out and take a breather, because the wave of calm wears off now that I don't need it. And then people immediately start asking me questions about the lecture. Like "how much Aura is one unit of it?" and "what's the Manifestation of the Soul theory?" and "how do we modify our souls?" And then I realize that these are all very good questions, and might explain why I haven't been having much luck actually teaching people how to do things. And also that I have no idea. I absorbed the skill books, and then started running on instinct (and my Aura Affinity). I need to get around to eating a book on theory, or even just testing things out experimentally. I manage to fend them off by promising to teach all of the basics first starting next session, and have them write up papers full of anything they think I missed or need to explain better.

"That went well!" Yang says cheerfully as everyone leaves. I give her a look.

"I didn't even know half the stuff I was talking about!" I complain. "It was just in the book, and my semblance kept insisting that all of it was true and accurate, and I used it, but I have no idea what it actually is!"

She just laughs as we approach the room, though I notice Weiss giving me an annoyed frown.

"How did you use the theory if you don't know it?" she demands.

"I know exactly enough about it to activate the skill," I explain. "Just not enough to actually explain the theory itself. Like how I know enough about a scroll to use it, but not enough to teach a class on Scrolls, and how they work."

"So why not just explain the important parts?" Blake asks.

"I did, but then people kept asking about the rest of it, and I don't _know_ the rest of it and it's terrible!" I most definitely don't whine as I say that.

"The bits you did mention were pretty accurate," Weiss says. "I didn't realize that you didn't actually know them until someone asked about them in a context not relating to your skills."

"Well, that's something at least," I mutter.

"It is more than most of us knew," Blake comments. "And as long as it's enough to get the technique to work, the rest doesn't really matter, does it? We're not researchers, we're Hunters and Huntresses. Even our History class mainly focuses on combat and tactics."

"True..." I muse. "But still! It's annoying! I don't _know_ most of it! Even though I can _do_ it, I don't actually know any of this stuff! It means that modifying the techniques or working past any problems is going to be really hard. On the other hand, if I can manage to actually get my hands on the theory books..." I grin.

"If you can read them without destroying them, I can loan you a few," Weiss offers.

I nod gratefully. "That would be awesome. Thanks."

(I AM A LINE)

Right, so Junior's boys were exactly as useless as I expected. You know, when they first lost, I thought it was just because another Gamer stepped in, but the second batch were an absolute waste of cash as well. Some weird silver haired kid took them out before I shot him. I would have just called this stuff off, but what Cinder wants, Cinder gets, so here I am, trying to make an alliance with the White Fang. Filthy animals. The only reason I'm working with them is because they're after the Schnee Dust company, and, well, I'm stealing some Dust. I hear they managed to hijack a train once, they'd better still have the capability. At least the ships won't be as hard to rob; these things don't carry three carriages worth of robots instead of cargo.

But first, I need to get the animals on my side. Right after I get past these guards. "Oh, hello there, fluffs," I say, sneering at the idiot rabbit in my way. "Do get your boss for me, would you? I need to talk to him."

She glares at me, reaching for her sword. I shoot her in the knee. "Nuh uh uh," I tut, shaking my head as I bring Melodic Cudgel up to block her dog friend's downward swing. I slam my foot into his chest, activating power blow, and snort as he crumples. The door remains in my way for about five seconds before my Lockpicking skill takes care of it. Of course, the Semblance boosted lockpicking has nothing to do with actually picking a lock, but hey, it works. Hell, it works better.

There's a couple more thugs in the room, but they go down just as easily. They're only about level 1 or 2, just civilians with a grudge, according to their backstories. Nothing capable of touching even a starting Gamer. I make my way deeper into the warehouse, heading toward where my lead minion-to-be is waiting. A couple of the animals try to sneak up on me from behind, triggering my Detect Bloodlust skill. Considering how often people try to kill me, I've already maxed it out, giving me the ability to know _exactly_ where they are. Of course, that was fairly recent, so it's still a pleasant surprise. It really is a good thing that the ridiculous level cap on skills goes away when you get your third Story Quest done. Can't even begin imagine how annoying it would be otherwise.

In the meantime though... I shoot both of the idiots trying to sneak up on me. In the arms, of course, taking these guys out permanently would make them less useful later. And then that one bull guy steps out. Adam Taurus, level 73. Heh. Of course his name's Taurus. Even the animals know what they are.

He goes to draw his sword. I just smirk at him, throwing him off a bit. "So, you here to finally take me to your leader? Because while I could do this all day, really, I do have things to do, shipments of dust to steal, you know."

"And what makes you think he wants to talk to you?" he asks. I twirl Melodic Cudgel before resting it on my shoulder.

"What makes you think he doesn't?"

"You realize we're the White Fang, right?" He actually sounds a bit amused. Hm. I don't think that's the way I wanted the dialogue tree to go. Oh well, might as well see what happens.

"Really?" I ask dryly. "Sorry, and here I thought you guys were with the milk teeth. I mean, that's how weak your minions were. Wow, embarrassing, am I right?"

"Very," he replies. "Don't worry, I'll make sure you don't have to worry about it."

"Thanks! You're a real pal, offering to do suicide for me!" I point Melodic Cudgel's barrel at him.

"Well, someone's going to die," he replies. A moment before he draws his sword, the filthy mutt in charge of the place steps out.

"Enough, both of you," he barks. "Why are you here?"

"I'm here to make you an offer you can't refuse," I reply with a grin. "I've got a list of places where some Dust shipments are happening, as well as timesheets and plans. All I need is men. And hey, look what you have! Lots of your little minions, not really doing anything of use right now." I toss one of my prepared sheets at him. He glances it over, and his eyes widen a bit, before he actively closes it off. Too late though, I saw, and I know that I've got him.

"We're the White Fang, we don't exactly like humans," the mutt growls.

"No worries, I don't like us much either." My grin is completely unshakable.

He lets out a whuff but nods. "Adam. Take a small group, and go with him. See how things work out. If he does anything stupid..."

The cow nods. I fight back the urge to shoot them both. But no, they don't know any better, they're not real. Shooting them would just be waste of time. You can't change their programming.

"Well then!" I say cheerfully. "Meet me in a couple days, over at that one bar, the Roaring Pony, down near the docks. Here's what skills we'll be needing." I throw my grocery list at them, having scrawled the list on the back. Let's see how much that insults them.

(I AM A LINE)

I grin at bull-boy as he enters the bar. "So, Taurus, did you bring the men?"

His eyes narrow in suspicion. "Yes. Where's the delivery happening?"

"I've got a couple of bulldogs waiting on the roof," I reply with a grin. "No worries, Taurus, we'll be there."

His eyes widen slightly. "Where did you-?"

"Nuh uh!" I say tauntingly. "No questions. My sponsors are going through a lot of trouble to keep themselves hidden."

"You're using us," he hisses.

"We're all using each other," I protest. "But yes, I'm using you a lot more than you're using me. But no worries, as long as our goals align, there shouldn't be any problems."

"And what, exactly, are your goals?" he snaps.

"Now that, Taurus, is a secret," I say smugly.

He thinks it over for a minute, then nods. "Fine. But I'll be watching you."

"You'll need to in order to watch my back," I say flippantly.

I get his flock of minions onto the Bulldogs, and soon we're on our way. About midway through the journey, he suddenly speaks up again.

"Is there any particular reason you kept calling me Taurus?" He asks, trying to sound casual. Of course, being the silent, looming type, asking at all pretty much gives him away.

"That's your name, isn't it?" I smirk. "Adam Taurus, the Herald of Decay."

"You've been studying us," he finally says.

My returning smile is perfectly smug. "So after this mission, I was thinking we should hit up a few Dust shops, get your minions out and about, have a little shakedown mission to see which of them can take it."

He snorts.

(I AM A LINE)

AN:

So. This is a chapter that happened. The story's _still _not quite started, but everything's pretty much set up, and we've thrown canon straight off the rails. The Vytal Festival Preparations and all that entails will begin starting next chapter, which is when we begin getting into the main plot.

On Torchwick: Yeah, he's a significantly higher level than Ruby, and got a lot more done. That's because a) His quests aren't time related as much as event related, and b) He's not wasting time in classes.

Also, on reviews: While I appreciate the fact that most of my reviewers are highly mature and very helpful, I have a couple things I want to say. 1: Unless you give me the ability to contact you in return (that is, you're logged in, and have PMs on), I'm probably going to ignore your review. Sorry about that, but I have trouble taking a review seriously when the person leaving it isn't willing to open a dialogue, and I'm not willing to waste space on an on-doc Q&amp;A. Those annoy me. 2: If you say something along the lines of "This is bad" or "This person is acting stupid" I'm going to ignore you unless you're willing to support that statement, with stuff like, "this is bad, because you have bad grammer, make consistent spelling mistakes, and your characters are OOC." or "This person is acting stupid, because despite not being in any form of emotional distress/panic, being in a fight for their lives where they can't afford to hold back, and having no reason to act non-lethally, they're not just shooting their target."

Putting that previous paragraph together: If people leave pointless reviews without giving me a way to contact them, I _will_ delete those reviews, if only so if someone decides to look through and see if this is worth reading, they get to look at the ones that actually talk about the story. On the other hand, even if you're lambasting this as literally the worst fic you have ever read, as long as you do it well (that is, point out my mistakes, mention why they're mistakes, etc), I will not just keep it up there, I will actively take it to heart and work to make my writing better. Plus, that's a good warning to potential readers, and I know that when I'm looking for a fic, I'd appreciate stuff like that warning me off. Unless of course, your problem is just that the writing style is too silly, in which case I, A) refer you to the genre of both this fanfic and the original anime, that is, humor, and B) Laugh at you.

Anyway, my apologies to people who've been leaving useful and thought out reviews for making you bother reading that stuff. Thanks for taking the time to read this fic, and I hope you continue to enjoy it.

Oh! One last thing, because people keep asking: Wisdom, Intelligence, and seriousness/maturity are unrelated. Intelligence is logical ability, information processing, etc. It's looking at a sudoku puzzle and seeing the answer, or solving a math problem. It's _not_ having a ridiculous vocabulary and engaging in sesquipedalian loquaciousness, or breaking into technobabble at the drop of a hat (especially when you have had no time to ever pick up a new vocabulary, and no inclination to). Wisdom, on the other hand, is understanding. It's telling when someone needs help, or needs to be alone, knowing when he or she's willing to speak with you, and when he or she isn't. It's also being more in tune with what's going. However, neither of these affect your core personality. Seriousness and maturity, on the other hand, are completely unrelated to Wisdom and Intelligence, and are part of that personality. Ruby is silly and immature, but smart, and later in the anime, wise as well.

To explain: She does silly and immature stuff like balancing all her stuff mid-class, making a bunk bed, and engaging in a massive food fight. Yet despite slacking off in class, she's obviously getting at least _decent_ grades, since Oobleck isn't mad at her as well as Jaune and Cardin (and it's not like this is a combat class where she's getting through on her combat abilities). Furthermore, while at the beginning, she's not very wise (thus Wisdom 2 in this), showed by her apparently thinking that screwing around is a good way to break the ice with Weiss who defines herself by striving for perfection, she wisens up over the course of the storyline, like when she has her discussion with Jaune. And yet she still has that discussion in a silly way ("Nope!").

She's very good at what she does, very intelligent, and good at talking to people and understanding their problems. She just has a tendency to act in silly ways. And you know what? Some people are like that. It doesn't make her any less competent.

Anywho, my apologies for the size of this Author's Note, but most of that needed to get out there, if only to avoid confusion.


	9. Chapter 9: Grimm Revealations

Chapter 9

"I can't wait for the festival to start!" I cheer. "I mean, a tournament! Against people from other countries! I wonder what their fighting styles are like?"

"Probably about as eclectic as ours, judging from Pyrrha," Blake says absently as we walk down the street.

"Well, whatever their styles are like, as representatives of Beacon, we should be here to greet them," Weiss says firmly.

"Wait... when did that happen?" I wonder. "Did I sleep through that part?" Her eye twitches slightly, probably in annoyance about the reminder that I usually sleep through most of the academic classes. I love my semblance and its book eating abilities.

"No, she's talking about the fact that since we're part of the Academy, we can be taken as representatives of it," Yang explains. I give her a blank look.

"But... what does that have to do with _us_ being here to greet them? I mean, if we were all doing it as a class, sure I'd get that. Or if we'd specifically been given the job-" I get cut off as Blake speaks up, sounding amused.

"She wants to spy on them so she'll have an upper hand on the tournament," Blake explains.

"But wait, how much information can you get?" I ask, frowning. Yang gives me a surprised and doubtful look, and I quickly continue my question, "I mean, I know you can get a lot from watching how they walk and stuff, and I can get some more by sharing my Observe data, but you'd see all that right before a fight wouldn't you? And since I don't think they're going to start fighting here as we watch, we're not really going to get _more_ information, are we?"

"Yes, but this way we have time to take advantage of the information and prepare," Weiss explains a lot more patiently than I thought she would. Apparently she figured it was actually a good question to ask. So here's another one.

"Okay... but we don't know who we're going to be fighting," I point out. "So even if we do see all their styles and skills, since there's probably about as much relation between any two of them as mine and Yang's, and you'd probably actually guess less because at least Yang and I are sisters, which style are you going to prepare for? I mean, say we see fifteen different people with fifteen different styles. You'll be fighting, what, 4 of them? Maybe? And we're only going to spot the very basics so-"

"Okay, yes, this was a bad idea, I get it," Weiss grumbles. "Fine. We can return to the dorms."

"Thank you!" Yang grumbles back, glaring at the docks. "Let's do something _fun_."

"Do you count beating up criminals as fun?" I ask optimistically, pointing at a Dust store that's apparently been robbed. "Because my Semblance is saying there's a quest to stop the next robbery. Oh, and it's a Story Quest, too, so it's definitely going to be interesting!"

"-an army? Huh?" One of the cops glance at us stopping mid conversation when he hears me speak. "You kids from Beacon?" he asks.

"Yeah." I nod at him. "So what happened?"

"Second Dust robbery this week." He shrugs. "Normally I'd tell you kids to stay safe and not go after the robbers, but if you're hunters, you should be fine."

"Am I the only one who finds it odd that 'being huntresses' is pretty much an excuse for doing anything?" I ask, a bit amused. "Beat up a criminal? No worries, we're huntresses. Stop a robbery? Yeah, we're huntresses. Just-"

"-stowed away on a ship? It's fine, we're huntresses," Yang adds, pointing at a blonde monkey faunus who's running from some cops. He obviously has Aura, considering his speed. I wonder how she knows he's a stowaway?

"-White Fang?" One of the cops says from behind us. I suddenly realize that I tuned out the conversation, and probably missed something important.

I spin quickly. Blake does too, obviously, considering her personal interest in this.

"I'm thinking we don't get paid enough for this," the other cop grumbles, pulling off his glasses.

"Hmph!" Weiss lets out a disdainful sniff. "The White Fang! What a bunch of degenerates!"

"What's your-" Blake gets cut off as the stowaway gets close enough for us to hear the chase.

"-no good stowaway!" One of the cops cries out. Wow, people just aren't getting to finish their sentences today.

"Hey! A no-good stowaway would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway!" The kid, Sun Wukong, Level 14, Acrobat, argues cheerfully. A different cop tosses a rock at him and orders him to get down. He returns fire with a banana peel.

"Looks like we found the competition." Yang grins at Weiss.

"Quick!" She shouts, pointing her rapier at him, and why does she have it out? "We have to observe him!"

We rush after him, only to find that he's faster than us, and more importantly, not impeded by crashing into a girl.

"No!" Weiss complains. "He's getting away!"

"Um, Weiss?" Yang points at the girl she's sprawled over. Penny. Prototype Ensouled Robot. Level 21, so the same level as us, despite our training for the last few months. I think we need to do hard dungeons more often. Or she's just overleveled like we are. Anyway, with orange hair, green eyes, a pink bow, and green overalls, she doesn't really look like a robot. Weiss scrambles up just as Penny begins to speak.

"Sal-u-ta-tions!" Penny says, her voice really chipper despite the fact that she's still lying down. Okay, she's totally a robot. That's actually pretty awesome.

"Salutations!" I reply gleefully. "I'm Ruby! And you are?"

"My name is Penny," she says, still not getting up.

"Are you okay?" Yang asks, sounding a bit concerned.

"I'm wonderful!" she replies cheerfully. "Thank you for asking!"

"Would you like to get up?" Yang asks again. She pauses, considering it. Obviously whoever programmed her messed up. She's in Uncanny Valley right now. On the other hand, robot with aura! Awesome is assured!

"Yes!" Penny suddenly exclaims, launching herself to her feet. "It's a pleas-"

Reality ripples as an Instant Dungeon activates. Standing in what was the middle of a small crowd of people a few moments ago is a ten year old boy dressed in black. Ancient Grimm. Looks like he changed what he looks like, and wow that's a terrifying thought.

"Fake." It gives me an absolutely ravenous look that has me reaching for my inventory. You know, beyond how its voice and how unsettling it is already has me reaching for my inventory. "What is the creature of steel with which you speak?"

"... Did you just kidnap me to ask me who Penny is?" I ask, completely blindsided by how utterly random that was.

"It has a false soul, but truer than yours," the creature explains. "Explain what it is, that I may devour it and take its soul for my own."

"Hey!" I glare at it. "You're not allowed to hurt her!"

"Then I shall ask it how it possess a false soul," it decides. "Do not allow it to attack me. I have no wish to taste your pain and death at the moment." That's... nice? I think? Maybe? I think I should go get Headmaster Ozpin. The Dungeon shatters around us, and I find myself back in the real world, the Ancient Grimm standing beside me.

"Ruby are you okay? Who's that?" Yang demands, raising her fists.

"Um, remember, the... old guy?" I say sheepishly. "This is him."

My teammates stare at it in horror as it begins to speak. "Creature of Steel," it begins, already ruining every single attempt at subtlety or discretion, ever. "How do you possess a soul?"

"I..." She freezes up, a look of panic crossing her face. "I don't know what you're talking about!" She finally decides to say. Ah, the classics! When in doubt, deny everything! Or ask for clarification. Or point out loopholes. Wait, she's not going with the loopholes one.

Unfortunately, it seems that Ancient Grimm disagrees with my love of the classics. "You are of steel and Dust, not flesh and blood," it growls. Which looks adorable coming from a ten year old boy. "And yet you possess a soul. I require one as well."

Now she just seems straight up flustered, apparently trying to figure out if she should be happy or worried. "You would have to ask my father," she decides.

"Hey! I have an idea!" I interject. "How about we discuss this somewhere private? Like, say, Headmaster Ozpin's office! I bet he could help everyone involved in this conversation!"

**Wise decision making has increased your Wisdom by 1.**

Huh. I wonder if I can figure out a way to abuse that? Like, can I come across a bunch of decisions, make a choice, see if that increases my Wisdom by 1, and if it doesn't, choose again?

"I will contact Father and ask him to meet us there!" Penny declares.

"No!" The Grimm lets out a growl. "I will not permit the Steel Fake to leave my sight. I require the light of a soul."

"Let's just all go talk to Professor Ozpin now, okay? And, uh, Penny, do you mind calling your father on your scroll?"

"Yes!" Penny nods, pulling out her scroll. As she does, Yang leans towards me.

"Okay, spill. Can you tell if she has a concussion or something?" she whispers.

"Nah, she's just a robot with a soul," I whisper back. "Prototype, so they must still be working on her personality or something."

"Oh, that makes sense." Yang nods, then does a double take. "Wait, what?" She hisses.

"Robot with a soul," I hiss back.

"Do you go out of your way to collect weird friends?" Yang asks, sounding amused. "I mean, first there's a Grimm, and now a robot?"

"I don't know!" I protest. "It just happens!"

"What are you two whispering about?" Weiss asks, sounding a bit frustrated. I wonder if it's because of how weird things are, or because she didn't get to spy on, sorry, _observe_ that one Faunus's training.

"Uh, we're just wondering what Penny's doing here," Yang says innocently.

"I'm here to fight in the tournament!" she declares, then gives a salute with an overly serious face. "I'm combat ready!"

"Wow, she really is a robot." Yang blinks at her.

"Wait, she's a robot?" Weiss blinks in surprise.

"Maybe we should concentrate on the important things?" Blake suggests. "Such as getting ourselves back home before this blows up on us?"

"Good idea," I agree.

* * *

"So. You are the Ancient Grimm," Ozpin says, peering at it over his fingers.

"I am," it replies, barely bothering to pay attention. "I desire a soul. Have one constructed for me."

"I cannot," Ozpin says after a moment, "In fact, I wouldn't know where to begin. General Ironwood may, however." He turns his gaze on us. Us being team RWBY, as opposed to Penny and the Ancient Grimm. "I suggest the four of you return to whatever tasks you believe necessary." His tone makes it pretty obvious that it's not actually a request.

"The Fake must remain," the Ancient Grimm snarls, looking like it's about to maul someone. Again, much more adorable with a ten year old face than it should be. Because it's very much _not_ one of those angry screaming ten year olds, it's like one of those angelic-looking little kids.

"... Alright. Ruby, please remain. The rest of you, however..." He gives them a look and they quickly flee the room. "So. Mr... Grimm. Do you perhaps have a name we can use for you?"

"A name? A term used to designate to whom you speak." It calms down, looking contemplative. "To differentiate one being of flesh from another. I have no name."

"You should choose one then," I tell him seriously. "Having a name is important. It gives you an identity, a way to differentiate yourself from everyone else."

It gives me a doubtful look, but shrugs. "Umbra," it decides.

... Shadow? Really? I mean, I guess it makes sense, because, hey, Grimm, and it _is_ a name that invokes a color... but still. Umbra?

"May I ask why you chose that name?" Headmaster Ozpin asks politely. The Ancient Grimm, no Umbra, now, and wait, did his name just change? Huh. His floating nameplate thing just changed. That's... I didn't know you could do that. That's actually really disturbing, now that I think about it, and wow, his title changed as well. Into question marks. And so did his level. And now I have a new quest.

**Hidden Completion Path found.**

**Storyline advanced. **

**Completed "Find Out About The Master, Hidden Path".**

**Reward: 25,000 XP, +1 to Int, begin Ensoul the Ancient Grimm Story Line.**

**New Quest Created:**

**Find Information on Penny**

**Through gathering information on how the Prototype Ensouled Robot was created, you may find out how to create a soul for the Ancient Grimm.**

**Reward: Researcher Title, Seeker of Truth Title, 25,000 XP, +1 to Int.**

**Failure Penalty: None.**

Oh, hey, I leveled. I casually open up my stats menu and kick my Int upwards. With that +1 to Int, it's 96 now, and my Wisdom's 37. So my Aura Pool is 2570, and I regenerate 243 per minute. So 4 per second. Well, this is getting ridiculously high ridiculously fast.

"It seemed appropriate. We are the shadows cast by the light," Umbra says. Right, the Headmaster's question. Wait, hold on, that's not right. Or, that's not the phrase. Now how does it go? Right.

'The Creatures of Grimm are the manifestations of anonymity. They lack a soul, and so they lack the Aura that every living creature possess. They are the darkness, and we Hunters are the light that burns it away.'

Okay, might have misremembered it a bit, but that's the basic gist of it, and wow, that was one heck of a clue, wasn't it?

"My Father is here," Penny suddenly announces, interrupting my thoughts.

The door slides open, revealing an old man dressed in a suit, and protected by a couple of Atlesian Knights. Along with them is General Ironwood, who looks very worried and cautious. I wonder wh- right, Ancient Grimm in the room. It's kinda weird how easy it is to forget what he is. Actually, it's not just kinda weird, it's straight up worrying.

"Headmaster Ozpin," General Ironwood says, nodding. Despite that, his blue eyes are focused on Umbra.

"I am now called Umbra," the Grimm replies, sounding completely serious. And also somewhat normal, actually. Its voice, which until this point was some weird mix of growling, snarling, and speaking, seems to have lost most of its inhuman tone. Does giving them an identity really mean that much to them? "That one is Headmaster Ozpin." It points at him.

"I know." A flash of amusement crosses the General's face.

The Grimm cocks it's head sideways. "Your eyes were focused upon myself. The eyes are indicators as to which one addresses. But you were not addressing me?" Somehow, despite it being a completely innocent question, the Grimm manages to make it sound weird.

"I wasn't," Ironwood acknowledges, "but I am now. Why don't you explain why you're here?"

"The false creature of steel and Dust possess a soul. I require one. I must find the Master."

"The Master?" The old man, Silver Tarisek, Roboticist, looks intrigued. "Tell me about this Master of yours."

"He is the Master," Umbra says unhelpfully.

"Okay, why do you need a soul to find him?" he asks.

"I require a soul," Umbra replies, "and I must find the Master. The two tasks are mostly unrelated."

... Then why even mention looking for the Master?

Headmaster Ozpin gives the other two important people in the room a sideways look, then sighs. "I see. Then may I ask why you are asking us for our assistance?"

"The Fake does not wish me to harm the false girl of metal and Dust," it replies, "and I have reason to believe that the Fake may be used to find the Master."

"Who's the fake? And why do you believe he can help you find the master?" Silver asks, leaning forward a bit.

"Oh, um, that'd be me," I speak up nervously.

"And why do you believe that Miss Rose can help you?" Ozpin asks. Umbra gives him a look.

"The Fake is of us, but not," it replies. "It is the nearest of the four that I have found."

"Wait, four?" I blink at it. "Who are the other three? Or, well, I know Torchwick, so who are the other two? Do I know them? And why me?"

"They are across the large waters- the oceans," it corrects itself, looking somewhat annoyed. "I know not if the Fake would know of the other Fakes."

The Headmaster gives General Ironwood a look, and he nods back. "This definitely hit the levels where the authorities need to be involved." The General sighs. "Mister Umbra, as head of the department in charge of the creation of Penny here, we'd be glad to help you in your quest to... create a soul, as long as you're willing to help us by answering our questions, even after you've achieved your goal. Since a number of these questions will be focused around giving you access to Aura, I hope you'll have no problems with this?" It hesitates, obviously thinking it through, then suddenly freezes.

"I am willing to grant to you my assistance. Speak with the Fake when it is required," it snaps out. A moment later, the world bends around it, and it disappears. Another moment, and a pop up appears.

**An Instant Dungeon is in the Area. Would you like to enter it?**

**Type: Populated, Various.**

**Level: 126-132.**

**Y/N**

On the one hand, I _really_ want to see what a level 126 Grimm is like. On the other hand, going in there is so far beyond a bad idea, it probably comes around the other side, then keeps going back to still being a bad idea.

"I have no idea what just happened," I say as I hit no. "He just used the Instant Dungeon Creation skill to leave, but I don't know why."

"I see," Headmaster Ozpin muses. "Very well. You are dismissed for now."

I nod, and quickly make my way out of the room, and back toward the dorm.

"-why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus?" I hear Weiss's voice even before I enter, and freeze. "It's because they've been in war with my family for years. War, as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear; board members executed. An entire train car full of Dust, stolen. And every day, my father would come home, furious. And that made for a very difficult childhood."

"Wait, a train car?" Blake sounds confused. "A _single_ train car?"

"What?" Weiss sounds like she's about to stab someone. "What do you mean, a _single _train car, do you have any idea how much Dust is on a train car?"

"Yes, but... they stole a train car? Not the whole train?" Blake asks hesitantly.

"They _blew up_ the rest of the train!" Weiss roars.

Right. Now's probably a good time to step in. I toss the door open, and step in. "Who blew up what train?" I ask, pretending I totally wasn't eavesdropping, "But never mind that! Listen, the Ancient Grimm, he talked with General Ironwood, and the scientist who made Penny, and with Headmaster Ozpin, and then he said there's four people with the Gamer Semblance! Including me and Torchwick! But they're like, across the ocean or something. Which is important, because it means he can _sense them across the ocean._"

Weiss and Blake stare at each other angrily, ignoring me. Well there went that attempt. "So why's that important?" Yang prompts me, obviously trying to help me distract them.

"Well, you guys remember Torchwick, right? The other Gamer I know about, except all evil and stuff? I was thinking we could ask Umbra, um, that's what the Ancient Grimm is calling himself now, to help us find him."

"Why would we want to?" Weiss asks, finally letting her attention get dragged away from her argument.

"Because he's a bad guy!" I pout.

"And more importantly, he's a bad guy who can get very strong, very fast, judging from how quickly Ruby's own skills grow," Blake realizes. "She's right. It would be better to take him out now than wait for him to become a proper threat."

"Hm. So find the guy who hurt my sweet little sister and kick his butt?" Yang grins, more relaxed now that the atmosphere's no longer as tense. "When do we do this?"

"Well, I think Umbra's busy," I admit. "So we can't do it immediately. Oh, but to practice, we should take out that one criminal who was stealing all that Dust! You know, the one that the cop mentioned!"

"What?" Yang asks, obviously trying to remember what I'm talking about. To be fair, she probably got distracted by the other two arguing, and by Umbra showing up. He's a bit distracting.

"He mentioned it was probably the White Fang." Weiss narrows her eyes. "And if they _are_ active, they're probably not going to suddenly stop. So we might be able to catch them in the act!"

"I'm telling you, it's not them," Blake snaps. "They've never needed this much Dust before. But I guess we'll find out when we stake out the next target, won't we?"

"But we don't know where that is," I point out reasonably. Yang grins, then turns to Weiss.

"You know, what with all the dust going missing, I'm betting people are willing to pay extra for it right now," Yang says casually. "You know, supply and demand and all that junk. So what do you think are the chances of your family sending an extra big shipment around now?"

"I'll contact them and ask," Weiss decides after a moment of realization. "Wait, how did you know how much Dust the White Fang needed?" Her eyes narrow at Blake, who freezes up for a moment.

"I used to be a part of it," she finally admits. "I joined back when it was just a peaceful group of protesters. Then things got violent, and I got out."

"But not immediately," Weiss snarls, her face a mask of pure rage, and of course things are spinning out of control.

"No, because as much as I hated it, it was working," Blake says softly, then looks up, _glares _up. "Do you know what that means? What it's like, being a Faunus? No, of course you don't, you were a princess, up in your ivory tower." Weiss is about to interrupt, but I quickly hush her.

"Let her speak," I hiss. "Then argue your point _after_ you have both sides." She grits her teeth, but nods. I also give Blake a look, and she sighs.

"Sorry, that was... out of line. But you don't understand. Everyone discriminates against the Faunus. They don't have any reason not to, not a real one. Up until the War, we were practically slaves. And now, we were daring to try to be equal? People hate that. So they mistreated us, paid us lower wages, kept us from taking jobs. My family was starving because of that discrimination. And no one was listening! Why would they, what did they care about the oppressed minority? We were just... we just so _tired _of being pushed around. And then, five years ago, a new leader took over. And he advocated taking an actual stand, _doing_ something. And so we did. And people started treating us differently. No one was willing to kick us out when it resulted in bombings, no one was willing to refuse employment when it meant their home might burn down. But it wasn't out of respect, it was out of fear. And I hated that. It... it wasn't the right way to do things. So I left."

Weiss seems to have calmed down a bit during Blake's speech. "I still don't like the White Fang. Despite what you might say, they are a terrorist organization who have actively gone after my family in particular," she says stiffly. "But if you quit because of their actions, because you didn't like how violent they were, then I guess I can't blame you."

Blake sighs. "And I suppose your opinions _do_ make sense," she admits grudgingly.

"So we should make a plan!" I say, dragging us out of the awkward moment that seems like it's about to occur. "And get a map of the docks and stuff!"

"Right. I'll go get the times from the company," Weiss decides, standing up, and heading for the door. "I'll return shortly."

"Right, Yang, do you think Junior might know something?" I ask her. "You know, that info broker?"

"He might..." Yang muses. "He's probably a bit hostile though. The last time we met we didn't exactly part on the best of terms."

"What happened?" Blake asks curiously.

"Oh, he tried to attack me, I beat up his minions, you know, the usual," Yang says dismissively. "Oh, and I smacked him around a bit. And then blew up the club. The jerk tore out a strand of my precious hair!" She whines the last part.

"Yes, you do seem to react violently when that happens," Blake comments. Well, that's a bit of an understatement. Yang goes Super Saiyan, then lights everything on fire. I think it's a special ability of hers that I just don't have a high enough level of observe to spot and that she didn't tell me about when she looked at her status screen. Or it wasn't on there because there's a bunch of stuff missing from her version that's on mine.

"Anyway, let's all go to the club together this time!" I say cheerfully. "I kinda wanna see it."

"Uh... Yeah, I guess that's fine," Yang decides after a moment. "Just keep your auras up, they might start shooting at us."

We waste a couple more minutes chatting before Weiss reappears, holding her Scroll. "Three days. Doc 17E," she says, tapping on her scroll. "It's a big shipment, various different kinds of dust, but it's not guarded. Perfect target for them."

"Yeah, guards probably wouldn't have helped," Blake says absently. "They've got a few Aura users."

"That's true-" Weiss begins, only to be interrupted as Umbra appears out of nowhere, apparently exiting an Instant Dungeon straight into my room. "GAH!"

Umbra ignores everyone's flinches, staring at me. "The Fake has taught the others how to change their souls into steel?" it demands.

"Wha- oh, yes!" I nod. "Jeez, you scared me!"

"Apologies are offered," it says absently. "What does the Fake intend by it?"

"I... was teaching people how to make elemental contracts?" I offer.

"Thi- I understand," it says, looking slightly annoyed at itself over the slip.

"Wait, what were you going to say?" Blake asks, sounding confused.

"I was about to refer to myself as 'this one,'" Umbra explains. "But I was informed that the strange speech made me attract attention. I agreed that attention was bad."

"... Were you with the White Fang for a while?" she asks. Weiss lets out an annoyed snarl.

"Was everyone here with the White Fang?" she demands. "This is getting ridiculous!"

"I was with the teeth for a short time, yes," Umbra agrees, ignoring her. "Do you know of me?"

"One of the other members mentioned that you helped her when she was being attacked," Blake says slowly.

"The human known as Alexandra?" Umbra guesses.

"She's a faunus." Blake's voice turns dry.

"You ensouled all resemble one another," it replies dismissively.

"Well now I guess I know why you had so few biases," Blake mutters.

"Wait, Umbra was in the White Fang?" I blink at him. "What were you _doing_ there?"

"The Fake was hidden behind walls and guards." Umbra shrugs. "I needed something to do, so I assisted the humans that tasted of despair. The turn to hope is rather agreeable to my extended palette."

"So the White Fang has stopped dressing like monsters and started recruiting them?" Weiss asks sarcastically.

Umbra simply shrugs, then fades back into an Instant Dungeon.

"Well. That happened," Yang says, taking it way too in stride. I think she's become immune to weird things. "So are we going to talk to Junior now?"

"Right, we might as well," I decide. "You know, get everything weird done today."

"Hey, he's not weird," Yang says, frowning.

I give her a look. "Do you really think nothing weird is going to happen there?"

"... Touché, little sis," she acknowledges. "Touché."

* * *

**Collect Information**

**Gather information from Junior about the ongoing criminal activities in the area.**

**Reward: Prepared bonus during the Robbery, 1,000 XP, increased Closeness with Junior.**

**Failure Penalty: None**

So an hour later, we find ourselves knocking on the door. Unfortunately, they don't seem very inclined to let us in, considering there's a bunch of mooks running away and trying to lock us out. Familiar mooks! Like the ones I beat up when they tried to rob the dust store. If Junior turns out to be our culprit, I'm going to laugh at the irony, then shoot him in the face for worrying Blake. Well, not worrying her, since she doesn't seem _quite_ worried, but you know what I mean.

"Might wanna get your weapons out," Yang says helpfully as they slam the door. I hear something thudding against it from the other side.

"What did you _do_ last time you came here?" Weiss asks, sounding slightly horrified.

"Eh, he's just being a baby about it," Yang says dismissively before punching the door off it's hinges. "Guess who's back!" she shouts cheerfully as she enters. A moment later, a pile of handguns are pointed at her. "And hey, I brought friends this time! Plus my dear little sis!"

"Oh, god, we're all going to die," someone in the giant crowd of mooks mutters as they begin pointing guns at all of us.

"Wait, is that the Grimm Reaper?" one of them asks, sounding shocked.

"Don't be stupid, her cloak isn't on fire," another hisses. I channel my Aura through my cloak, setting the red Dust patterns aglow. ... What does this thing even do? I honestly can't remember, it's been, like, half a year.

"She's probably just an imitation?" one of them says hopefully. I discharge a barrage of Aura Arrows into the air.

"Oh, god, we're all going to die," the first guy repeats.

"When did you become able to fire that many in one shot? That's ten more than last time, right?" Yang asks curiously, glancing up as 25 Aura Arrows slam into the roof.

"Oh, I asked Professor Goodwitch for some tips," I say offhandedly. "She uses this a lot, and since she has a higher skill level in it, she counts as a skill tutor, which means that I increase the skill she's teaching me a lot faster while she's teaching me individually. So that got my skill level up to 39. And then my Bullet Hell skill is at 17, so I get an extra 17% from that. Plus I equipped my There Is No Overkill title, so that's another 50% boost."

Yang shrugs, then turns back toward the crowd of thugs. "So, anyway, my little sis here's about as awesome as I am, and she's gotten even better since the fight with Torchwick. And our buddies here? They fight alongside us, and they can cause a pretty big mess as well. So how about you toddle off and get Junior here, huh?"

"No need, I'm here!" some dude, Hei Xiong, Information Broker, Level 8, announces from the back. Huh. Strength and vitality build. Locked aura. "Blondie. You're... back. Why?"

"You hear anything about the recent Dust Robberies?" she asks. He shakes his head..

"Not much," he admits with a grimace. "I've got rumors of it being White Fang, but they don't really use this much Dust. They're more of a Guerilla group, stealing this much just attracts attention, and Dust... well, it's not _easy_ to track, but Schnee's probably willing to put a lot of effort into finding it. You'd have to ask your friend for more about that." He nods at Weiss. "Oh, quick hint? Might not want to wear that in this part of town. You might not have to worry about winning a fight, but being in ten might begin to be a bit of a hassle."

"Hold on, you're saying you don't know anything?" Yang stares at him. "C'mon Junior, you're the best info dealer in town."

"Look Blondie, flattery won't make me magically tell you info I don't know," he grumbles. "And no, I don't know anything. White Fang's not exactly willing to deal with us humans, even us criminal types. They deal with other Faunus or not at all, and frankly, I'm trying to avoid police attention enough that hiring a faunus is just asking for trouble."

"Explain," Blake's voice is sharp, and he raises an eyebrow at her.

"Nice bow," he comments before continuing. "Look... Cat? Wolf? Sorry, can't see your ears. Anyway, the cops? Not all of 'em are exactly unbiased. Which means they might harass any Faunus employees that I've got. And if they do that, they might decide to harass them _here_. And that's not something I want."

"Wait, don't you have trouble with the White Fang getting annoyed at you for discrimination?" I wonder.

"They hit public places. Big places. Places where they'll make the news, where it'll make an impression. They hit here, and people will try and _keep_ it from the news. I sell to lots of sorts, including some politicians and some news companies. None of 'em want me being well known; someone might get into their heads to interrogate me about who I know and what I've told them. So overall, bombing me? Not worth the effort compared to, say, making another raid on some Schnee freighter. And with my boys here, it's probably the same amount of danger... not that they're any good against you Hunter types." He sounds pretty annoyed about that.

"So you've got nothing we can use?" Yang sighs. "Fine, let's go."

"Well, actually, Red over there might find this interesting," he says. "The guy you were fighting on the news, Torchwick. He hired a couple of my boys, and they never came back. Probably because of how hard you smacked 'em around. But since I saw that fight, I've been keeping a watch out for info about him, and here's the weird thing. I hear he's with the White Fang now."

"What?" Blake stares at him. "That's ridiculous! The White Fang would never work with a human! They hate humans!"

"Look, I'm not saying anything about how likely it is, but here's the story I heard. Apparently he smashed his way through their guards, straight into their secret base, beat up the leaders, and then handed 'em a list of every dust shipment and their guards in the area. Of course, another story has him getting taken down by one of their elites, some guy named Taurus. But it's generally agreed that he gave them some info, and they teamed up with him to get things done. They all hate each other, since he's as racist as the rest of the damn cult, but apparently they can get over it in order to get stuff done." Huh. Hold on...

"What about..." I pull up my titles list, and scroll up until I find the one I'm looking for. Off the Rails. The requirement was to kill Cinder Fall before the Tutorial ended. Obviously, I failed, but that's the name that I couldn't remember. "Cinder Fall."

"Cinder Fall? She's a rumor. Well, no, that's not quite accurate. Cinder Fall's real, she's even got some pretty spotless records and stuff. But she's got some ambiguous ties to this side of things. No one's sure if she's actually a criminal, and if anyone does know, they're not talking. The cops don't have anything to pin on her, and starting last year, the hunter Qrow's been trying to figure out more about her. Apparently she's pretty high on a couple watchlists now."

Huh. So that's why he suddenly got busy. I was wondering about that. "Thanks!" I say cheerfully.

"I don't suppose any of you will be paying?" he asks sarcastically, obviously not expecting us to say yes.

"How much?" I ask, tilting my head a bit. He names a number. I pull the cash from my inventory and hand it to him.

"... Am I actually going to be able to spend this?" he asks cautiously. "It's not counterfeit, right?"

"Not as far as we know," I confirm.

"Storage semblance?" he asks after a moment of thought.

"That's not-" I begin, only to get cut off by Yang.

"-something we want to be well known," she says firmly.

He raises an eyebrow, but nods, and the four of leave.

"Why did we bother to hide it?" I ask curiously. "Almost everyone already knows."

"Junior's an information broker," Yang points out. "And we don't want him selling that info to anyone else."

"But a bunch of people already know." I give her a confused look as I speak.

"Right, but A, I'm pretty sure all of them are on our side, and B, that's still different from telling an information broker, in which case, we might as well be shouting it from the rooftops."

"That's true," Blake comments. "The White Fang used to check with various info brokers before we, well, they hit somewhere new. If we're going up against them, then we should probably take at least some basic precautions."

"Hm..." I frown, then shrug as I turn in the quest. Unfortunately, I'm a high enough level for 1,000 XP to only make up about 5% of my progress. "But Torchwick already knows," I say, frowning. "He found out during our fight, and he'll probably tell them."

"How?" Weiss asks, frowning. "I saw the recording of the fight, and you weren't exactly taking time off to talk about your Semblances."

"I, uh, might have accidentally told him when I realized he has the Gamer ability as well." I cough in embarrassment. "Yes, I know that was stupid, but gimme a break! I was too shocked that he had the Gamer ability!"

"That does seem like something that would throw you off," Blake admits.

"Still, doesn't that mean he'll be targeting you?" Weiss asks.

"No- wait, we had this discussion during our fight. Wasn't it on the recording?" I frown at her in confusion. The others shake their heads. "Oh. Well basically, he's convinced that the Gamer Semblance means that we're the only real people, and everyone else is just a video game character," I explain. "You know, NPCs. And since we're the only real people, he doesn't feel bad about hurting others... of course, I'm pretty sure he never felt bad about hurting others in the first place, but you get what I mean."

"So... he's nuttier than a bag of trail mix?" Yang confirms. I nod. She grins, smashing her fists together, and letting her hair burn gold for a second. "Good. That means we don't have to waste time trying to talk him down."

"Waste?" I narrow my eyes at her, and she snorts.

"Please, does trying to talk them down _ever_ work? _Ever?_" she challenges me. I frown.

"Well it did in that one movie. Star Wars," I finally say.

"No, I'm pretty sure he wasn't really the villain in that one," Blake comments. "I agree with your sister. They never let themselves be talked down. Especially the fanatics and the crazies."

* * *

Finally, the day of the shipment arrives, and the four of us are waiting at the docks, hidden on the rooftops, looking down at the docks. Well, I am. Yang's way up front, hidden just behind a couple crates. So is Blake. Weiss is hiding up here with me, ready slide down on a spray of glyphs. I, on the other hand, have Crimson Rose set up in sniper mode, and two copies of Roc hanging around.

It takes a little while, but the Bullheads containing the White Fang eventually arrive, disgorging a small group of them... along with Roman Torchwick. I see Torwick scowl for a second before I open fire. My first shot is an Aura Bolt which catches him straight on, knocking him sideways and taking out a good chunk of his HP. Unfortunately, he dodges the second one, getting behind cover, so I switch targets. No point aiming at the ones already on the ground, especially since Yang and Blake have already engaged them. I'll take out their transportation instead.

The air goes white with the brilliant light of hundreds of Aura Arrows as I begin to burn through my reserves. At the same time, I order my two elementals to go possess the other two Bullheads and fly them toward the water, then crash.

"Weiss, head down," I order her when the smoke begins the clear. She nods, launching herself off the side of the building and leaping from one previously hidden glyph to another. I have no idea when she picked up the ability to do that, but it's pretty awesome. It looks like she's jumping through thin air, unless you pay really close attention.

I switch my focus from the burned out remnants of the Bullhead back to Torchwick himself, and switch back to Aura Bolts. Since my first attempt didn't kill him, he both knows where I am and that I'm aiming at him, so this isn't as much of a mindless sniping exercise as I'd have hoped. Fortunately, their new tendency to explode and my higher levels kills means he only tries to block them once before getting knocked backward. After that, he begins to return fire. I throw up an Aura Barrier, then glance up to make sure both the Bullheads are out of the way. Seeing that they are, I call off my lightning elementals, and let them fall out of the sky over the ocean. Maybe someone'll be able to pull up, but I doubt it. In the meantime though, I switch to a pair of metal elementals and launch them at Torchwick.

He grimaces as the first one smashes into his Melodic Cudgel, knocking him off balance, and the second one slams into his right arm. Unfortunately, it's not enough to take him out. It's also not enough to stop him from somehow hook shotting me with the stupid thing. You'd think that a three story building and a few meters of empty space would be enough to keep me out of range of a melee-based weapon, but no! Instead I let out a yelp as it grabs onto my cloak and drags me off the roof.

I use a pair of Aura Barriers to slow my fall, using them as platforms that I can hit before gaining enough velocity to actually hurt myself. Finally, I'm on the ground, and he's rushing toward me, a couple of his White Fang mooks having drawn off my elementals while I was distracted. I swing Crescent Rose upward, dumping most of my Aura into reinforcing my physical abilities and activating my Aura Armor. Luckily it leveled well, so even at it's level 15, it grants me over a thousand HP for just 17 AP. We clash, crystal and steel clashing.

"Red!" he says cheerfully kicking me in the gut and sending me stumbling backward. "How nice to see you again! So glad you could drop in! You know, you're interfering with my quest."

"Sorry, but you _are_ my quest," I reply, throwing a barrage of Aura Arrows from my left hand to make him back off a bit. He manages to block most of them, though the explosions that my Living Artillery title creates force him to back off. One of the shots even manages to get through. He lets out a hiss of annoyance.

"This was a new shirt!" he grumbles. "Annoying brat. Hmph. But let me show you the benefits of playing the game the right way." He reaches up, switching something on a menu. I open fire. Chivalry's for schmucks. They don't hit in time to stop him from switching to the title "White Rider" though.

He laughs, his voice dark, almost insane. Black mist begins to flow around him, flecked with purple... flecks. It'd be pretty if it weren't accompanied by a soul-crushing despair and terror. A moment later, he's been replaced with a... thing. Thing is definitely the best word word to describe it. It doesn't look like any Grimm I've ever seen, nor even heard about. Admittedly, I never really paid attention to Professor Port's classes, but still. The creature is vaguely human shaped, with white bones making up a vague skeleton structure. It seems to be riding a white horse. Or, that is to say, its bottom part looks like a horse, covered entirely in the white bone-stuff. And in it's right arm, ending off it's hand, is a white bow-like structure. The creature raises the bow to aim at me, drawing an imaginary arrow with its left hand. It doesn't stay imaginary for long, because a moment later, there's a bone arrow _wrongwrongwrong_ flying at me, screaming of _deathdestructiontheendofallthings_.

I dodge, of course. The arrow feels _wrongtaintedimpurecorrupted_, a strange mixture of the darkness born of the Grimm and the light born of an Aura. Even with my impressive defenses, being struck feels like it would be a bad idea. I take the opportunity to Observe him. It doesn't give me much, other than this.

"**The White Rider rides forth, Conquering all before Him."**

I don't fire again, instead rushing forward and slashing away with my scythe. Despite my low level in it, my boosted strength makes the damage rather impressive. Besides, he's slower in this form, making it easier for me to hit. Unfortunately, I get the feeling it's not exactly a problem for him. When I notice his his HP restoring itself, I realize why.

I kill all my boosts, switching to fighting defensively, and just avoiding those _strangewrongimpurecorrupt_ arrows. In only a couple seconds, my aura has restored itself. I hadn't used much, mainly relying on passive abilities, or abilities below my regeneration threshold. I take advantage of that to open fire with a full barrage of Aura Arrows. He just laughs, a deep, unnerving, sound, and returns fire. I cut off my own shot to avoid it.

Then Yang drops out of the sky, full Burn mode, and smashes into him from above. His horse rears, tossing her off, and he launches an arrow. I can see her eyes widen and she tosses herself to the side, deciding not to risk taking the hit.

"Hmph. See? This is what happens when you play the game like you should," Torchwick says, his voice distorted by the form he's taken. "The White Rider! A title gained through killing three people on each side."

A spray of bullets hits his back and he spins, unleashing another arrow, only for it to slam into a wall of ice. The arrow blasts through, but a lot of its velocity has been robbed by the obstacle, and Blake's easily able to dodge it.

"We've cleared out the members of the White Fang," Weiss shouts, "and have quite a few of them imprisoned. I strongly suggest you surrender, because otherwise I'm going to feel perfectly fine taking my frustration out on you."

Wait, what frustration? She seems fine! Well, except for her occasional issues with me being leader. And the ones that show up whenever she talks about her family. And- actually, no I think those two are the main ones. Huh. I should probably talk to her about this stuff at some point.

"Please, so you kids can take out a few of those animals." Torchwick's voice is disdainful. "As if that says anything about how well you can do against me!"

We all ready our weapons, and prepare for the fight.

* * *

AN: Notes first, then a bit of news.

First off: Yeah, things are getting kinda random with hints of another 2 Gamers, and people sequence breaking like there's no tomorrow. I promise this is a) plotted and not just for the hell of it, and b) the other 2 won't be showing up. I dislike using OCs in fanfiction. It keeps making me worry about having Mary Sues.

Second: Yes, Torchwick's advancing significantly faster than Ruby. He's the main villain, he's allowed to do that. Also, he's not busy being sociable.

So now, bad news. This is probably going to go on hiatus for a bit. College and stuff combined with inspiration dying down. My apologies, but I will attempt to pick this back up during the summer break. I might get a couple more chapters up before then, but don't expect much. And even after break, I might wait until the next season comes out, if only so I actually have more information to work with. Because we've got pretty much nothing right now, and I don't want to get too far away from canon.

On the other hand, I keep being afflicted with the most random ideas ever, and have to fight to not put them into here. That's slowing me down even more. So I'll probably be creating a couple of one-shots to throw them into. Hopefully that burns off the sludge in my brain and kick-starts this.

Edit: Realized that I'd mixed up the mythologies of the White Rider and the Pale Rider. Ruby is supposed to have access to the Pale Rider title, Torchwick's supposed to have access to the White Rider. (If you look them up, you'll probably see the theme that's cropping up)


	10. Chapter 10: Round 2! Fight!

The first few minutes of the fight are underwhelming. We unleash a barrage of attacks, and he laughs them off. He shoots arrows at us, and we dodge, letting the arrows crash into the metal shipping crates or wooden dock around us. It seems to be going fine (after all, our hits are slowly wearing him down) until an arrow manages to clip me. It's barely a graze, not even a scratch, but instantly, my semblance gives a warning.

**The Grasp of the White Rider is upon you, and Pestilence feeds upon your flesh. The Conqueror's Will shall not be denied.**

I let out a gasp of pain as I see the area around the wound begin to rot. A moment later, a second notification appears.

**Gamers Body has protected you from the effects of the White Rider's Arrow.**

The rot stops spreading, but remains. At the same time, my health bar suddenly starts dropping. I activate my regeneration, feeding aura into it to keep my health bar topped off. Luckily Blake seems to have attracted his attention away from me, because otherwise he probably would have shot me again while I was distracted.

I thank her by dropping about a hundred Aura Arrows into Roman's back. Despite the massive numbers, his health bar ticks down only a little bit. The explosions do knock him off balance though, and he spins on that bony not-horse to face me.

"So, Red... no, you're not Red, are you? You're the Pale Rider. You really should change up your color scheme. I mean, Red for the Pale Rider? No, that just won't do." He fires another one of those _wrongwrongwrong_ arrows at me, and I throw myself to the side, coming up from a roll to unleash another barrage of bullets in his direction. He shoots an arrow upward, knocking a pile of crates in between the two of us. I take the chance to catch my breath and check my stats. I let out a tetch of annoyance as I noticed my health bar getting low again already.

"What the hell are you talking about this time?" I demand, activating my Regeneration again. My health bar slowly begins to restore itself, my aura fighting against the supernaturally inflicted disease. The White Rider was the Conqueror, after all, the disease that made even the proudest kneel. I wasn't really sure how I knew that, the knowledge was simply... there.

"Our titles," he says cheerfully, flinging an arrow at Yang. She dodges, and I have Roc fire a pair of lightning bolts at him. He catches the lightning on his bow, which seems to discharge it harmlessly. "And specifically, the Rider titles. They're the important ones, you see. After all, they're what let us talk to the Grimm. Have you tried taking Grimm Form yet? Oh, what am I asking, of course you haven't. You're like those dumb cops. More power and authority than anyone else in the area, and no idea how to use it. Well, when you take on a Grimm form, you become able to talk to them. Understand them. And the thing is, each of the Riders? They're heralds of the Apocalypse. The end of an Era. The end of humanity's Era! Isn't that the _perfect_ way to end this game? Vale falls, everyone dies! All that needs to happen is for all four Riders to activate their Grimm forms at once. Even the lesser one you start with is enough to command the lesser Creatures of Grimm, but you'll need the highest level version before we can end this game. And since I'm guessing you won't do it willingly, I'm going to make you." He grins, and the effect is completely terrifying on his bony skull-face.

"And how are you going to do that?" I demand. "You don't even know how to activate my title! And besides, there's no way you could convince me to do what I need to!"

"Did you know we're not the first ones to play the game?" he asks, suddenly completely off topic as his bone bow deflects another strike from Weiss. "The Gamer Semblance has appeared before, you know. And each time it takes on a different... theme. This time, it's the four riders who herald the end. Last time? It was the seasons. You know, Autumn, Winter, Spring, _Summer? _As in, oh, I don't know, Summer Rose?" Yang smashes into him like a golden comet. Asteroid? Meteor? Meteoroid? Whatever. She smashes into him in a blaze of golden fire, which proceeds to explode, blasting the crate out of the way, and letting me see with my own eyes, instead of Roc's.

"Shut the hell up!" she snarls. Her hair is alight with power, and her eyes are so red I'm afraid they they're going to start bleeding. As I watch, her Title changes from Blood Knight to Golden Wyrmling. "You have no right to mention our mother! You have no right to try to use her against us! And I'm going to take a page from Nora's book, and _crush you_." She pummels him as she talks, her blows smashing into his inky skin.

"Please, crush me? _Me?_" He laughs, kicking out with his horsy parts, sending Yang flying into a shipping crate. The impact leaves a dent which quickly melts. I grit my teeth, a wave of calm taking the edge off my urge to yell out, and take the opportunity to shoot at him again. He shrugs it off just like he did the last time I tried it, and fires back. I block the arrow with Crescent Rose, sending it flying into a wall behind me. "Now where was I..." he muses. "Oh, yes. So the Gamer semblance. Each time it arrives, it does so with a different representation. The previous one was seasons, the one before that, the Tarot. That is, Swords, Cups, Pentacles, and Wands. The one before that was the four elements of Dust. So on and-"

Yang smashes into him again, this time with Weiss hitting from the other side. I use Crescent Rose to boost myself forward, joining in on the attack. Blake joins as well. All four of us smash into the jerk at once, only for him to take the opportunity to impale Blake and Weiss with a pair of held arrows at point blank. They both twist away at the last second, preventing the arrows from doing more than grazing them, but it's enough for the effect to trigger. Their health bars join mine in dropping, but unlike me, their Aura regenerations aren't able to keep up with the drain that's suddenly put upon them as they try to heal the injuries the arrows inflict.

"Weiss! Blake!" I let out a cry and disengage, rushing to grab Weiss and pull her out of the fight as Yang does the same for Blake. Without the Gamer's body to protect her, the disease is visible, actively eating away at her flesh like some sort of rot. "I'm sorry," I murmur under her agonized screams. I pull out a Red Dust crystal, and activate it heating up the Crescent Rose's blade. I take a breath before carefully slicing with her, cutting away diseased flesh and a good portion of healthy flesh around it. Her scream grows louder for a moment before choking off as her Aura, strengthened by the effects of my Semblance, kicks in and begins regenerating the injuries in a way that her body could otherwise never accomplish. I stand, turn, and calmly pull out about fifty grams of Red Dust. Torchwick just watches, a cruel mockery of a grin dancing across that fake skull mask on his Grimm form.

"Crescent Rose," I say calmly. "By the contract that binds us, by the Aura that you feed upon, I command you to grant to me the greatest extent of your power. Be Fragile. Be Broken. Be Freed. For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." The gems that make up the blade begin to crack, then shatter as the Dust Infused, highly unstable elemental within is released from it. And now, just to make things weirder, its Aura is awakened. I add fuel to the fire and spend all 50 grams of Red Dust channeling a single Flame Bolt through the Crescent Rose's barrel. Just before the entire weapon comes apart, I drag the elemental into the barrel as well. Then I pull the trigger.

I have no idea how these will all react. My skill knowledge says no one's ever tried most of this. Most abilities barely use an extra three milligrams to power it up to twice times as strong. Most people don't bother trying to awaken the soul of a nearly mindless construct born of the power of your contract with its originator, an aspect of nature. Especially not after it's been infused with enough dust to form an artificial affinity to the opposite element. No one's stupid enough to do all of that at once.

The fireball hits Torchwick like the fist of an angry god, and the massive twister of fire lights up the night for miles around. My set of 15 Aura Barriers, all thrown up while Crescent Rose destabilized, all wrapped around Torchwick, collapses within seconds. And the world is bathed in light.

* * *

_It's cold. It's so very cold. But the moon is so whole, so beautiful as it shines down upon the empty glade. I raise my hands, and begin to chant. I call forth the demons of the depth, those with whom I've made my contract. The Interference Law will not let me change the world. It will not let me heal her. So be it. If Gaia will reject my actions, then I will reject her in turn. I will call forth an Illusion Barrier, one so large that it will cover the world, one so permissive it will allow even those without power, and one so strong that not even Gaia's influence will break it. But Gaia is an ancient and powerful force. So I'll need a way to cheat it. And isn't it lucky that someone was recently granted the Gamer ability? Every game can be cheated, after all, and, well, whenever he gets involved, life is a game._

**You had a Nightmare. You did not recover HP, SP, or MP.**

**You rested in a medical area. Your HP, SP, and MP have been fully restored.**

My eyes blink open to reveal a sterile white ceiling. I stare at it in surprise for a few seconds, not really getting why it looks so unfamiliar, before I realize there's a heavy weight on my chest. I crane my neck, glancing down at whatever's there, then almost have a panic attack. The Ancient Grimm is currently in the form of a house cat, sitting on my chest, and staring at my eyes. I quickly look around, calming down a bit when I see a number of beds with white curtains around them. Obviously, I'm in some kind of medical center. And since even in this cat form, Umbra looks like, well, a Grimm, what with those bony white and orange plates practically covering his entire body, I'm probably in Beacon's built-in hospital. Anywhere else would probably have people panicking, after all.

"I see that I will have to train the Fake," Umbra says calmly. "It is not permitted to die."

"... Umbra," I say, ignoring my dry throat. My Gamer's Body lets me ignore many things. Something like a dry throat is a lot less important than my question. "Have there been people with the Gamer semblance, that is, people like Torchwick and myself before?"

"Yes." It nods. "There are always four Fakes."

"Do you know if my mother was the previous one?" I ask, my throat dry. "Um, her name's Summer Rose. She... she was-"

"Your progenitor?" it asks, tilting its head like a puppy. "The one from whom you were birthed? No, she did not possess the falsehood of soul. The former four have all fallen. This is why the current Fake exists. There are always four Fakes, four deceptions, four lies that bind us. One fake being birthed to another is unlikely."

"But she might have been?" I ask. It shakes its head.

"I recall the tastes of the other Fakes. This Fake does not taste of any of them. Every Fake falls without spawning more. I suspect this is because they are false, and thus cannot bring truth."

"... Right," I say with a sigh, then frown. "Wait. If there's so many Gamers, why haven't I heard about any of them before?"

"The Falseness is not always known," Umbra explains. "It requires a catalyst to manifest."

"Huh. Okay, so what catalyzed my Semblance?" I ask it.

It shrugs its... bones at me. Umbra doesn't really have any visible shoulders in this form. "I know little of the requirements for manifesting a falsehood. I search for the Master, and that requires me to find truth, not falsehood." Why do I get the feeling that he's insulting me?

A minute of awkward silence later, Yang smashes into the room. She looks perfectly healthy. "Ruby!" She yells, launching herself at me and hugging me, "You're okay!"

"You too!" I say gleefully, quickly pulling myself upright and hugging her back. "How are the others? What happened, do you know yet?"

"The others are fine. After you, uh, shot him, pretty much everyone ever, throughout the whole town, noticed. So then the cavalry came in the form of the army. After that, we all got dragged here for medical attention," she explains. "Weiss and Blake are both fine, though they're technically still in treatment, and they've been placed in quarantine for now. Those disease arrows of his did a bit of a number of them, and if it weren't for the accelerated healing that we get from the combinations of our Aura and your Semblance, it'd be much worse than it was." She grins. "Your Semblance made the medicine work pretty much instantly, so they're really just sitting there while the doctors make absolutely certain that it's not contagious. In more depressing news, Torchwick got away, so we can be pretty sure he's going to be coming back to try to attack us again sometime soon."

"Wait, he got away?" I complain. "But what about my awesome exploding shot of doom?"

"Well, apparently, you managed to knock out every dust and aura based piece of equipment within about a hundred yards, causing a bit chaos, and knocking a lot of the civilians out when you tore their aura down," she says cheerfully. "But beyond that, it wasn't actually that lethal."

I start sulking a bit when I hear that. I sacrificed Crescent Rose for nothing? "But wait, I saw a lot of fire!" I protest.

She nods. "Yeah, apparently, it's like when someone sneezes into Dust. There's an explosion of whatever energy type's in the Dust, and you waste a lot of it, but nothing actually gets damaged despite that. Only you imbued it with opposing elements, and a lot of extra dust, so instead of a small explosion, you got a fire tornado that tore through people's auras. They're trying to figure out how you did that by the way, since everyone's Aura recovered pretty quickly. It wasn't painful or anything, it just took people straight from perfectly normal to unconscious. The law enforcement's drooling over it."

"Ugh." I collapse back onto the bed. "That's... good, I guess."

"Is it? Was your intention not to kill the other Fake?" Umbra asks. It sounds kind of annoyed. I wonder wh- Oh no. I shoot up, staring at it in horror. Yes, I did, in fact, toss it off the bed when I sat up to hug Yang.

"Oh no, are you okay?" I ask worriedly. It gives me a you're-an-idiot look, which is made a bit worse by the fact that it still looks like a cat that got turned into a Grimm.

"I am capable of surviving far more that simply being thrown at a wall," it replies, a lot more calmly than I'd have replied if I were thrown into a wall. As it talks, the bony plates that make up its armor layer begin to dissolve, and its shadow-flesh begins to melt. A moment later, it shapes itself into a human form, then solidifies. A white and orange bone mask forms over where its face would be, and it quickly reaches up to pull it off. With a weird ripple effect, Umbra's body turns into perfectly normal flesh. This time it's a girl. It's tall, with spiky blue hair, blue eyes, and tan skin. And it's dressed in a black formal dress, the kind you'd see at one of those fancy parties.

"Huh," Yang says, staring at it curiously. "That's actually pretty cool. Do you actually have any limits on that?"

"At my maximum mass, I am the size of a small mountain," it replies absently. I stare at it.

"... Where does that extra mass go when you shapeshift, anyway?" I ask after a moment. It shrugs.

"I have found no reason to care," it says dismissively. "Far more importantly, the Fake must be trained."

"... Wait, a Grimm is offering to train a Huntress?" Yang asks, staring at it. It raises an eyebrow in return.

"I have often watched other Fakes. I am aware of how the falsehood works," it replies. "Furthermore, I will not be training the Fake directly unless the Fake chooses to achieve its Grimm form-"

"Wait, that's common?" Yang interrupts. It gives her a somewhat offended look, but nods.

"Yes. There is always a Grimm form, although similarly, it always has some some other effect demonstrating its mortal background. However, that is not what I wish to speak of. Instead, I wish to say that I will be interfering with its... 'quest' generation. Accomplishing those objectives will make the Fake stronger more quickly."

"Huh. Okay," I say thoughtfully. "I'll have to work around going to Beacon though."

It shrugs. "I have discussed this with the gray-haired leader. He accepted. However, I must know, why is this Fake born of the void?" It focuses its eyes on me. I stare back at it.

"Huh?" I ask eloquently.

It grumbles, but begins to explain. "The Fakes... they have always existed. Four of them. Their souls are fake, but they are here. They remain upon this world, they can be tasted, though the taste is muted and hidden, and _false_. But this Fake has no taste of its own. It has _no_ soul, simply an endless void that tastes of the elements, and of Gaia's will."

"Who?" I ask in confusion.

"Wait, Gaia, as in the will of the world?" Yang speaks at the same time I do.

"Yes." Umbra nods. "That Gaia. Now, know this. The four falsehoods are channels that Gaia has carved into reality, to allow her influence. The voids are the paths through which she extends her will. These paths are limited and understandable, though we cannot sense Her within them. She is, after all, one without the emotion upon which we feed. This same void serves as a shield, hiding the emotions of the ones who possess it away from us. However, this Fake... this Fake possesses nothing but this void. This emptiness through which Gaia's will extends. And even the emptiness has taken a flavor, when it should not be able to! Gaia is all things, so how can her void take on the taste of flame or frost? How can the Void have a taste?"

"Wait, so if I'm... an instrument of Gaia's will or whatever, why do you call me fake?" I demand, kind of annoyed.

"Because all such beings are Fake. They are not truths, they do not exist in truth, they are simply constructs, walls built around the voids," Umbra snarls, its fingers clenching and unclenching repeatedly in frustration. "They are... things. False. And this one is more so! The others possess true souls, though they may be hidden and smothered beneath Gaia's will, but this one has no soul at all! So why then can it cast the light of a soul? It does not feed as we must, it does not exist as we do, it is Fake but it pretends at truth far more than any other dare!"

"Whoa, calm down," Yang interjects. It snarls at her, but quickly does. "So... you're saying that my sister's a conduit for the will of Gaia, but she's not the right type of conduit because she's too much of one."

"Yes," Umbra hisses.

"... Okay, that doesn't make sense. Why does Gaia need a conduit, anyway?" Yang asks in frustration.

"There's an illusion barrier, isn't there?" I ask, gasping in realization. "One around the whole world. And it's what's spawning the Grimm! And... and Gaia needs to break it, but She can't because it's anchored to the moon or something, so She needs us Gamers!"

Umbra nods. "Yes."

"So... could we break the illusion barrier?" I demand. "Would that make there be no more Grimm?"

"In a way. You are aware of how an Illusion Barrier works?" it asks.

I nod. "Yeah, it gathers nearby souls, then condenses them into monsters. Then the concentrated energy can be harvested."

"That is how they once worked," it corrects me. "However, the Barrier that Spans the World is different. It must be, to hold off Gaia herself. As it has sealed Her away, it has also removed that within it from accessing the flow of souls. Now, an illusion barrier is powered by emotion. It gathers the negativity, hatred, and despair, and uses it to form us. Once it has, it ceases to support our existence, and we must feed to continue. As we are creatures of emotion, any emotion suffices. Positive emotions simply have an unpleasant feeling when we devour them."

"Wait, how do you know how they used to work?" Yang frowns.

"I was created by the first Barrier when it was being tested," the Grimm replies with a shrug. "The Master did not know of my existence, and the barrier was shut down. Normally, that which is created by the barrier is destroyed, but due to the circumstances of the time, and the experiments that were committed, I fed and survived until the next Barrier was created."

"Wow, you're old." Yang whistles. "Do you remember everything from then?"

"I remember little from before my fifth millennium," the Creature of Grimm says dismissively.

"That's... really long," I finally say after we both stare at it in shock for a bit. "Geez. Oh, but you didn't explain. Would breaking get rid of the Grimm?"

It gives us a look that reminds us that we're currently asking something how to kill it and everything like it. "It would not," it finally says. "It would simply prevent further Creatures of Grimm from forming. Those of us who still exist can sustain ourselves by feeding."

"... You know, if you guys don't need negative emotions, wouldn't peace be possible?" I suggest.

"I am the first among my kind, and I have achieved the ability to speak with the ensouled only recently. For a significantly amount of time, I was both extremely powerful and extremely hostile to you ensouled. And I only ceased that hostility because I became curious about the four voids through which Gaia retained her influence," it points out.

"So... that's a no?" I sigh. It snorts.

"So, I don't suppose you know anything else we'd find interesting?" Yang asks curiously.

It cocks its head. "I would not know what you find interesting, and what you do not. You who have a light are difficult to understand. You are blinded by it, deafened by it. You do not look, you do not hear, you do not taste, you do not smell, you do not feel."

Well. That's kinda insulting. I huff at it, but don't comment, not having much else to say in wake of its revelations. Instead, I decide to pull up my various status screens and stuff, and see what's going on in them. The status screen is perfectly normal. HP's back to 79, AP's at 2570, and SP is at 81. So even if resting didn't restore them, the fact that I was asleep and not using them that whole time did. So that's good!

It's on my skills menu that the first few differences show up. First off, there's the "Collaborative Skills." The only one I have so far is Prismatic Blow. Its description is "All four members of your team strike as one. All attacks get a 10% bonus to damage dealt per attacker." My Sniper Rifle, Sniper Mastery, Two Handed Axe, and Axe Mastery also went up. Weirdly, everything went up by exactly 5 levels. They've even got the same amount of XP left over as they did 5 levels ago!

The next difference shows up in the Jobs menu, under quests. Apparently, I failed the "Stop the Dust Robbery" quest, which gave me a consolation prize of... 5 levels in my weapon skills. Okay, so that explains that. I also got a couple new quests out of it though!

**A Wizard is Prepared**

**Your latest encounter with the criminal known as Roman Torchwick has demonstrated your lack of preparation. Match his level before your next fight.**

**Reward: Prepared title.**

**Failure Penalty: None.**

The other one's part of a new Storyline, called "Invoking Arcana."

**The Fool**

**You were the Fool, the empty void. Your journey has just begun. Summon the Fool Arcana and pact with it.**

**Reward: Invocation Skill.**

**Failure Penalty: None**

"So when can I get out of bed?" I ask, deciding to put everything else aside for now. I can deal with it later.

"You've got the ability to perfectly diagnose yourself, so whenever you want," she replies cheerfully. "Although it helps that your Gamer's Body skill keeps them from poking at you and actually getting results. All that happens is you take some hit point damage and then immediately regenerate."

"Awesome." I grin as I drag myself out of the bed. I don't feel sore or anything like I used to when recovering from being put into the hospital, which is nice. "So let's go visit the others! I bet I can pick up a healing skill and heal them or something, so we can all get out of here."

Weiss and Blake are in the same room, and both of them seem to be awake. Blake is reading a book. Not a skill book, unfortunately, so no new skill there. Weiss, on the other hand, is busy arguing with a nurse when we arrive.

"Look, I can just use a Glyph to accelerate my healing! It might leave a scar or two, but you said I'm fine, right? So I'll be fine! Worst comes to worst, we're right here anyway!"

"Wait, what's going on?" I ask as we wander into the room. The nurse turns, lets out a shriek, and drops her clipboard. I blink at her in surprise before I realize—oh, right, Umbra's still following me. Then I realize he's supposed to be in human form, so that can't be it. "What?" I give her a confused look.

"Why are you out of bed?" she yells dramatically, glaring at me. "We still don't have any idea what's wrong with you, or why you weren't waking up, or-"

"It's fine!" I say soothingly, holding up both my hands. "My stats are all what they're supposed to be, I don't have any HP damage, I'm fine!"

She glares at me. "Are you a medical professional?" she demands. "No? Get back into bed!"

"Yang!" I whine. "You said they'd let me up!"

Yang rolls her eyes. "Dr. Shiruba let her up," she says to the nurse as she pulls a note out of her pocket. "We've got a note, see?"

The nurse narrows her eyes, then stalks over, grabbing the note and looking it over. "Hmph. I suppose so," she finally grumbles. "Be _careful_ though," she stresses, giving me a look. "Your semblance makes it difficult to treat you. The same for you, Miss Schnee!" She suddenly spins and points at Weiss. "Rest!"

Weiss gives her an annoyed look, but sighs as she lays back down.

"So. Since when can you heal with more than the passive Aura effect?" Yang asks curiously, sitting down in the chair beside her bed.

"I picked up the skill a little while ago," she explains. "You're aware of my Haste glyph? Well, due to how Ruby's semblance works, I managed to modify it to accelerate healing in a part of the body."

"That sounds like it'd exhaust your body's natural healing abilities pretty quickly," Blake comments.

Weiss rolls her eyes. "Of course it will. It's still better than having a giant hole cut out of my chest."

"Ah, sorry about that," I say sheepishly, kicking the floor. "But Torchwick had hit you with one of those arrows, and you were _rotting_ and I had to stop it, but I didn't have any way to so I had to cut it out, and are you going to be okay?"

"I'm fine." Weiss sighs. "I understand. I need to pick up a few proper healing abilities though. I am the team support mage, after all."

"Oh. Huh. Wow, we did get pretty lucky, didn't we?" I say as I realize what she's talking about. Apparently, we ended up going with the 'optimal' hunter group. A support mage, an artillery, a tank, and a striker. "I wonder if they did that on purpose? A lot of the teams seem more optimized than you'd expect from random chance."

"I think that has more to do with the fact that less optimal teams don't tend to make it that far," Blake comments, having put her book away. "A team of all tanks tends to get worn down, a team of all strikers or all artillery burns out, and a team of all support mages doesn't get enough time to actually get all their support skills active."

"Well, this is an interesting conversation," a voice says from behind me. I spin, startled. "Are old friends allowed to join in?"

"Sterling?" I blink at him. For a moment I feel kinda guilty that I'd pretty much forgotten about him. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey Ruby," he says, sounding a bit sheepish. "I'm, uh, actually here to see you. I got my affinity constructed, so I was visiting to talk to you about doing the contracting. And then I heard you got hurt, so I figured I'd drop in to see how you were." He shrugs. "No flowers or get well soon gifts, I'm afraid, I didn't hear about your injury until after I'd already arrived. Uh, sorry about that."

"Nah, it's fine. I'm not really a flowers kinda girl. Oh, anyway, this is my team! This is Weiss, she's my partner! She's our support mage, glyphs and stuff, but she's pretty good with her rapier as well, so she can get pretty close. The girl on the other bed is Blake, she's our striker. The guy behind me's Umbra- and he disappeared. Of course he did. Anyway, you already know me and Yang!" I grin cheerfully at him, looking for Umbra out of the corner of my eye. When I spot the sign of an Instant Dungeon, I relax, and focus my attention back on the others.

He smiles back. "It's nice to meet you all. I'm Sterling. I was one of Ruby's friends back when she was at Signal with us non-geniuses."

Weiss and Blake give him polite greetings, though Weiss looks a bit curious. "You mentioned you managed to get an affinity? What type?"

"Metal," he says, tapping the pistol-sword at his side. "I've been watching a lot of Ruby's fights-"

"Wait, you've been watching my fights?" I blink at him in surprise. "How?"

"Sparring club publically broadcasts its practice fights unless you ask them not to," Weiss explains. "It's a publicity thing. It helps us hunters advertise our skills to the type of people willing to hire us. Father occasionally checks the records for people he thinks would be useful to hire in security."

"Huh. That's pretty cool," I say thoughtfully. "Wait, so why didn't we hunt down the records of everyone else's fighting styles before the tournament instead of observing them in person?"

"How are we supposed to know who we're looking for?" Weiss points out. "And even then, most of them probably aren't even in the club. Blake and I aren't, but we're still going to be in the tournament."

"Oh. That makes sense, I guess," I admit sheepishly. "And since my Semblance is likely to give us most of the information anyway, scouting out a couple people at this point would just be a waste of time, wouldn't it?"

"Exactly." Weiss nods. "It'll change when we actually see the brackets, but for now what information we've got is enough."

"So... how exactly did you guys get hurt anyway?" Sterling asks curiously, waving at the bandages that are visible on the two Huntresses still in bed. "Did it have to do with that huge anti-auric pulse that hit the docks a while ago? There were rumors that a team of hunters got into a fight with Torchwick over there, and then he summoned an army of Grimm. And since you're the only one who I know can actually summon..." He trails off, looking at me expectantly.

"Oh, yeah, that's mostly right. Except instead of summoning a Grimm, he turned into a... fake Grimm. Because that's his Semblance." I quickly swap out what actually happened for a slightly more reasonable but still somewhat accurate story. "While in that form, he's a lot stronger, so I tried to blow him up. Failed miserably. And Crescent Rose died!"

I frown sadly at the memory. I liked Crescent Rose! She was awesome! She had blades and spikes and shot bullets and made my spells even more powerful, and most importantly, I'd infused an elemental into her! So she was even more alive than most weapons are! Plus... well, weapons are kind of an extension of ourselves. Even if I didn't use her directly in a fight much, being without her just feels... wrong.

"Aw, cheer up sis," Yang says comfortingly as she hugs me. "You can resummon her, right? The elemental that you infused into Crescent Rose? And then you can rebuild her, and she'll be... well, she won't be the same, but you'll still have another version of her!"

"It's not just that." I sigh. "It's... it's just that we're all growing stronger, you know? But he is too! And he's getting better than us faster! He took on all four of us, and he barely flinched! Crescent Rose took me months to make, and it'll take Blake and Weiss a while to heal, and we just lost all of that time because of a single fight with him! We've fought _Nevermore_ less challenging than him!"

Yang holds me tighter, not saying anything. The room is quiet for a moment before Sterling breaks the silence with an awkward cough. "Well, I'm... going to go now, I guess. I hope you're doing well and continue to do well."

I pull myself out of Yang's arms a bit reluctantly. "Wait! You needed the next bit of the summoning, right?"

"Oh, yes." He nods. "I tried to get ahold of more of my brothers notes, but he didn't take good ones on that part."

"Why don't we do it right here? I kinda wanna see what it's like from the other end," I offer. He blinks, then nods, apparently realizing that I'm trying to distract myself.

"Of course, if you're offering," he decides. "Do you mind drawing the circle then? I'm not- okay, that's kinda impressive."

As he spoke, Weiss had reached into a bag that was hidden by the bed until now, and pulled out a vial of dust that she handed to me. I popped the cork, and quickly used my Dust Shaper ability to form the summoning circle. "Put your sword in the middle," I instruct him. He follows my directions, getting out of the circle even before I order him to. "Do you know the chant?" He nods, looking kind of nervous.

"Yeah. Should I begin?" he asks.

"Yup!" I nod. "Just concentrate on the blade, and start chanting."

"Aura. The might of my soul. I, Sterling Silver, call upon the ancient contract of ages past to summon thee. I beg that you heed my call. Come, Metal Elemental." The sword glows a brilliant white. Oddly, it doesn't consolidate into anything, just kinda petering out. Despite that, he begins speaking.

"I'll begin in accordance with the ancient rituals," he says, his voice soft, almost worshipful. "My name is Sterling Silver. You have heard my name, so please, tell me yours." Suddenly he collapses, falling to his knees with a grunt of pain. I'm about to step forward to help him when my knowledge tells me not to because this is how it's supposed to go. Suddenly his face smoothes, the pain that was twisting it apparently disappearing.

"Our souls are one," he gasps out. His body begins to glow as his aura burns into existence. Violet sparks flow from his body toward the space above the blade, slowly forming into a vaguely humanoid image. "I am Sterling Silver," he declares, his voice a bit stronger. "We will be one forever." A moment later, he nods, a slight smile on his face, then he looks up at me. "That hurt," he says, his voice sounding kinda accusing before he falls over, unconscious.

"Ah! Are you alright?" I yelp, quickly rushing over to him. Yang snickers a bit as she follows me.

"He'll be fine, it's just the same Aura exhaustion you went through, remember?" Yang says. "Let him get a bit of rest, he'll be fine. And now you know why I was always so worried about you after this." Even though she sounds kinda careless as she talks, she's pretty gentle as she picks him up and drops him onto one of the spare beds. "So it looks like you guys got a new roommate!" she says cheerfully to the others, "Hope he won't... _steal_ too much space."

"Okay, that was stretching it." Weiss frowns. "Sterling Silver is a silver and mostly copper alloy, with very little iron or carbon."

"She might be using the sword as the base for the pun," Blake points out. "Which is still a bit of a stretch since the elemental isn't the one taking up the space."

The rest of the visit passes without much happening. Sterling wakes up a couple minutes later, and quickly heads out, a bit embarrassed about having completely drained himself. Once he does, I turn to the others. "So we need to do something," I say firmly. "We lost pretty badly, even though all four of us went against him at once. So we need to get stronger more quickly. Luckily, Umbra offered to help. So I've got a few quests that I think we should focus on. Due to EXP leakage, we should all be able to benefit from them. Oh, and by the way, we've apparently got permission to work our schedules around this, though I'll have to ask Professor Ozpin for the exact details."

"Details of what?" The headmaster's voice comes from the doorway. Is everyone spying on us today, and showing up... um... somewhat around their names? Hm. I guess it wasn't perfectly convenient, was it? Still. Kinda odd.

"Of your agreement with... Umbra," Weiss says delicately. "He mentioned he was going to help us out."

"Ah, yes." Ozpin nods. "He is trying to find this... Master of his. He seems to think that recruiting you four for the journey will help him and you both."

"But you don't?" Blake asks, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I can't say," Ozpin replies, shrugging. "I admit to knowing very little about the capabilities of this Gamer semblance of yours. Whatever happens though, finding more details on the origin of the Grimm would never be a bad thing. And he seems rather unconcerned about the fate of other members of his kind, so you will be able to defend yourselves to the best of your ability while you are out there. Doctor Oobleck has kindly agreed to escort you on your fact finding mission, as you will be heading to a number of areas with significant historical significance. He will also be serving as your teacher and will be grading you during this mission."

"Wait, what?" I give him a confused look.

"Well, we can't have you simply dropping out of Beacon," he points out. "So we're going to treat this like any other student mission. You will be taking the class work that you'll be missing along with you. Do try to avoid falling behind, please." The four of us nod in agreement. "Very well. You'll be leaving a week after all of you have been discharged, which should be in a couple days at most."

* * *

AN: Has anyone else ever gotten the feeling of getting halfway through a story, and then realizing your shocking twist is completely idiotic? As in, the one that you based about half the story so far around? Ugh. Let me tell you, it's painful.

Anyway, yes, this is actually a crossover with the Gamer. Shocker, that. And yes, I realize I made some modifications. Most of them are due to the effects of the world-spanning Illusion Barrier, but some are just there so the worlds actually, you know, merge. There's also a lot of exposition about the nature of the Gamer in this setting, and the origins of Grimm (in this setting.) Of course, since it's anchored to the moon, people aren't exactly capable of doing anything to the world-spanning Illusion Barrier.

Next: The Invocation skill. This is lifted from Anima: Beyond Fantasy. It's a variation of Summoning. Instead of summoning your minion to stay there and help you out, you instead summon the creature, which makes an attack or grants a boon or whatever, and then leaves. So summoning Salamander, for example, results in a fire elemental showing up, while Invoking her results in a giant blast of fire that tries to omnikill everything.

Sterling: So, he just randomly reappeared. This is mainly just to note that the ripples are starting to spread, and to give an idea of how long developing a single Affinity takes for people who _aren't_ Ruby. So anyway, other people are developing the summoning skills. It'll probably drop off again once they realize that it's not actually useful at the low levels most people are capable of learning it at, but for now there's going to be a brief surge of summoners, starting around the end of season 2's timeline. At that point, we'll be so firmly off the rails that I doubt season 3's going to have much effect other than actually giving me more background information to use. Anyway, another reason Sterling's here is to give us a view of how the "normal" hunters see things. Otherwise I'd have to either pull in someone from JNPR or I'd have to make up a new OC. Since JNPR isn't exactly normal, and I dislike making OCs, Sterling it is.

Final Note: This is a full 2 pages or so shorter than I normally do it, but whatever. Uploading it. I've been making you guys wait for months, and this is as good a place to stop as any.


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